Black American Perspectives

Black American’s View The Economy Differently

“I thought a black president would make a real, actual, touchable difference in my life. He has not. But he’s trying. He inherited a mess that those awful Republicans left him. So, he deserves re-election.” — Anonymous Black American Voter, Larry Elder,· “The Black Occupy Protester — Missing In Action” ¹


Despite a Black unemployment rate hovering around 16% as compared to a National unemployment rate hovering around 8%. ² Despite a Black teenage unemployment hovering around 42%. ³ Black America feels much better about the economy than White America. According to Syndicated Columnist, Larry Elder, “a February 2011 Washington Post survey found that 24% of Blacks were ‘very’ or ‘somewhat satisfied’ with the economy, compared to 12% of Whites. A recent NBC poll found that by a lopsided 73% to 19%, most Americans considered the country on the ‘wrong track.’ But not Blacks. 49% of Blacks think the country is ‘headed in the right direction‘ versus 38% who do not.” ⁴

I wonder if the Pro-Life movement is listening?

Black American Women View Themselves Differently

“Black women haven’t really defined themselves. We were always defined as workhorses, strong. We carry the burdens, we carry the family. We don’t need. We don’t want.’” — Sophia Nelson, author of the book “Black Woman Redefined: Dispelling Myths and Discovering Fulfillment in the Age of Michelle Obama.” ⁵


According to a front page article of the Monday, January 23rd, 2012 Washington Post, “Black Women In America: Peeling Back The Labels,” a Washington Post and Kaiser Family Foundation survey of over 800 Black women, found “Religion is essential to most Black women’s lives; being in a romantic relationship is not, the poll shows. ⁶ Nearly three-quarters of African American women say now is a good time to be a Black woman in America, and yet a similar proportion worry about having enough money to pay their bills. Half of Black women surveyed call racism a ‘big problem‘ in the country; nearly half worry about being discriminated against. Eighty-five percent say they are satisfied with their own lives, but one-fifth say they are often treated with less respect than other people.” ⁷

Here’s a summary of the article:

 · 74% Prioritize living a religious life. 
 · 68% Call career success “very important.”
 · 46% See the economic system as being “stacked against Blacks.”

I wonder if the Pro-Life movement is listening?

Black American’s View The Pro-Life Movement Differently

“Women are not blinded by their faith, and they understand the connection of abortion to other critical issues such as economic justice, the environment, racism, and caring for Black children. In fact, as one SisterSong member put it, ‘Jesus died to save us from our sins, not to save us from our minds.’” — SisterSong, “African Americans Underrepresented in Anti-Abortion Movement,” Published in Collective Voices, Vol. 2 Issue 5, Summer 2006 ⁸


Despite Black women accounting for 40.2% of all abortions in the United States of America. ⁹ Despite abortion rates for White women decreasing and abortion rates for Black women increasing, ¹⁰ SisterSong, an organization founded in 1997, is dedicated to women of color and reproductive justice. SisterSong was built from a budget of $0 dollars to over $1 Million dollars by the Pro-Choice movement and works tirelessly to ensure that Black Americans understand how the “spectre of forced breeding” (e.g., such as during the days of slavery) in the Black community is being resurrected by the anti-abortion and anti-birth control agenda (i.e., Pro-Life movement) of White, Male, Catholic, Conservative Republicans and Democrats. While Loretta Ross will step down in 2012 as the National Coordinator for SisterSong, ¹¹ the organization will continue to work hard to ensure the Black community understands that “attacks on abortion and birth control are cynically used to mobilize a conservative base of voters who are hostile to civil rights, human rights, LGBTQ issues, women’s rights and immigrants’ rights. But mostly, they are hostile to our Black children, pushing them out of schools and into jails.” ¹²

I wonder if the Pro-Life movement is listening?

Black American Views Require Black Americans

The Negro Project 1.0

“The minister’s work is also important and he should be trained, perhaps by the Federation as to our ideals and the goal that we hope to reach. We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.” — Margaret Sanger. ¹³

In 1939 Planned Parenthood’s founder Margaret Sanger’s created the Negro Project. ¹⁴ Ryan Bomberger, Co-founder of The Radiance Foundation, says: “With the help of elite and famous African-Americans Mary McLeod Bethune, W.E.B. DuBois, and Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, Sr., the Negro Project was able to be sold as a solution to poverty and high birth rates.” ¹⁵ Indeed. Under the pretense of “better health” and “family planning,” Sanger cleverly implemented her plan to restrict, if not entirely eliminate, the Black community. Today the Negro Project is alive, well and pays the abortion industry enormously high dividends at the expense of millions of lost lives in every community.

I wonder if the Pro-Life movement is listening?

The Negro Project 2.0

“Are we willing to do for the truth what others are willing to do for a lie?” — Walter Ralston Martin (September 10, 1928 — June 26, 1989), Christian apologist who founded the Christian Research Institute in 1960.”


We have entered into the fortieth (40) year of legalized abortion in America and the Pro-Life movement has few strategies or tactics that appeal to or are supported by the Black community. Even though Planned Parenthood has been exposed, over and over again, as a criminal organization, she continues to be difficult to defund and next to impossible to dethrone. Why? Because Planned Parenthood invested in the Black community, she now (illegitimately) enjoys an air of “credibility” as the only organization working hard to meet the needs of poor and disenfranchised women struggling to realize the American Dream.

Walter Martin’s words just keep ringing in my ears. “Are we willing to do for the truth what others are willing to do for a lie?”

I believe so, still …

I just keep wondering if the Pro-Life movement is listening?

Brothers, we really need to talk.

Note(s):
· Laurence Allen Elder, Radio talk show host and syndicated columnist. Larry is a Republican who supports free trade, school choice, same-sex marriage, amnesty for illegal immigrants, and abortion rights (http://bit.ly/DE77a).
Reference(s):
01. Laurence Allen Elder, Syndicated Columnist, “The Black Occupy Protester — Missing In Action,” Published December 12, 2011 (http://bit.ly/slOuaA).
02. United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Economic New Release, Household Data, “Table A-2. Employment Status Of The Civilian Population By Race, Sex, And Age, Last Modified Date: January 06, 2012 (http://1.usa.gov/2ZYGjf).
03. Ibid.
04. op. cit., “The Black Occupy Protester — Missing In Action,”
05. “Survey Paints Portrait Of Black Women In America,” Washington Post, By Krissah Thompson, Published: January 22, 2012 (http://wapo.st/x6Pmk8).
06. Ibid.
07. Ibid.
08. SisterSong, “African Americans Underrepresented in Anti-Abortion Movement,” Published in Collective Voices, Vol. 2 Issue 5, Summer 2006 (http://bit.ly/xFo9nt).
09. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “Abortion Surveillance — United States, 2008,” Surveillance Summaries November 25, 2011 / 60(SS15);1-41 (http://1.usa.gov/zXJv0q).
10. Ibid.
11. Loretta Ross, “A Message of thanks and transition from SisterSong National Coordinator, Loretta Ross,” (http://bit.ly/xF5DOR).
12. op. cit., “African Americans Underrepresented in Anti-Abortion Movement,”
13. Letter from Sanger to Dr. Clarence J. Gamble, of the soap-manufacturing company Procter and Gamble, 10 December 1939, Margaret Sanger Collection, Library of Congress (MSCLC) (http://bit.ly/zP6hgk) and/or (http://1.usa.gov/wG65PW).
14. “The Negro Project,” Margaret Sanger’s Eugenic Plan for Black Americans, By Tanya L. Green, Posted at Concerned Women of America (http://bit.ly/qARBD).
15. “The Negro Project: Poor, Black and Undesirable,” TooManyAborted.Com (http://bit.ly/cTN2ni).

Erotetics

“There is nothing as deceptive as an obvious fact.” — Arthur Conan Doyle, Sr. (Scottish writer, creator of the detective Sherlock Holmes, 1859-1930)


Erotetics (Greek, erõtésis, that which pertains to questions) is a part of logic that is devoted to the logical and pragmatic analysis of questions and their answers. Erotetic logic evaluates the principles that guide the presuppositions at the root of questions such as … When does a proposition answer a question (correctly or incorrectly)? What’s wrong with questions that presuppose false propositions (such as “Have you stopped beating your spouse?”)? Do questions bear truth-values? Or the question I hear from abortion minded women only steps away from the door of an abortion clinic … Will you take care of me and my baby?

Erotetic Logic

“It requires a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious.” — Alfred North Whitehead, OM FRS (15 February 1861 — 30 December 1947)


Erotetic logic starts with discerning whether or not the question … Will you take care of me and my baby? … is a syntactically proper question (i.e., a WFQ, meaning a “well-formed question”) or a syntactically improper question (i.e., an IFQ, meaning an “ill-formed question”). From here several linear paths can be taken in an attempt to understand why an abortion minded woman, only steps away from having the life of the baby in her womb terminated and the horribly dismembered body parts of her child sucked down into a biohazardous waste bag, is asking the question … Will you take care of me and my baby?

Are We Ergo an Erotetic Pro-Life Movement?

“Do the duty which lies nearest to you, the second duty will then become clearer.” — Thomas Carlyle (4 December 1795 — 5 February 1881)


As we enter the fortieth (40th) year of legalized abortion in America, the Pro-Life movement has been looking for ways to end abortion. For almost four (4) decades we have painstakingly devoted ourselves to logically and pragmatically analyzing ways to end abortion. We have employed the best minds in the world to carefully, diligently, meticulously work through the data to discover a way to end abortion. We have wrestled with the principles that guide the presuppositions at the root of the abortion debate and over the course of 14,245 days fought to elect Presidents, Representatives and Senators to hammer out a solution. As I look back at our efforts to end abortion and ponder why an abortion minded woman, only steps away from having the life of the baby in her womb terminated is asking the question … Will you take care of me and my baby? … I wonder if after all of our sermons, prayers and sacrificial giving, the reason why an abortion minded woman, is asking … Will you take care of me and my baby? … is simply because, she is in need of someone to care for her and her baby?  ¹

Brothers, we really need to talk.

Reference(s):
1. According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI) “the reasons women give for having an abortion underscore their understanding of the responsibilities of parenthood and family life. Three-fourths of women cite concern for or responsibility to other individuals; three-fourths say they cannot afford a child; three-fourths say that having a baby would interfere with work, school or the ability to care for dependents; and half say they do not want to be a single parent or are having problems with their husband or partner.”, May 2010, “Facts on Induced Abortion in the United States” (http://bit.ly/9GH9ch).

Personhood: It’s Science Fiction

"I am the best there is at what I do … but what I do best is not very nice." — Marvel Comic’s catchphrase for Wolverine debuted September 1982.

Science Fiction deals with imaginary but more or less plausible (or at least non-supernatural) content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities. Exploring the consequences of scientific innovations is one purpose of science fiction. Science Fiction is largely based on alternative possible worlds or futures. It is similar to, but differs significantly from fantasy in as much as the imaginary elements of the story are largely possible within scientifically established or scientifically postulated laws of nature. As a child running in the streets of Detroit, Michigan, my favorite Science Fiction was Marvel Comics’ X-Men. ¹ The X-Men are a futuristic superhero team created by writer Stan Lee and drawn by Jack Kirby that first appeared in September 1963 when I was seven (7) years old. The X-Men possessed the “X-Gene” (a gene normal humans lacked) that gave them their extraordinary mutant abilities. Over the years Wolverine became my favorite X-Man. Wolverine was literally part wolverine and part human. Wolverine possessed animal-keen senses, enhanced physical capabilities, three retracting bone claws on each hand and a healing factor that allows him to recover from virtually any wound, disease or poison at an accelerated rate. The healing factor also slowed down his aging process and enabled him to live beyond a normal human lifespan. Today, Wolverine has a near-indestructible metal alloy adamantium endoskeleton and claws. As a boy, Wolverine was my “super soldier.”

Personhood: It’s Not Science Fiction Anymore

"The term ‘creation’ is not just fanciful rhetoric: some of the research now underway involves actually altering the genetic code of soldiers, modifying bits of DNA to fashion a new type of human specimen, one that functions like a machine, killing tirelessly for days and nights on end. These mutations will ‘revolutionize the contemporary order of battle’ and guarantee ‘operational dominance across the whole range of potential United States military employments,’ the DARPA wizards enthuse." — Hunter Gatheress, Paranoia Publishing ·

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is an agency of the United States Department of Defense and is responsible for the development of new technology for use by the military. ² According to Wired magazine’s Katie Drummond, “DARPA is looking to re-write the laws of evolution to the military’s advantage, creating “synthetic organisms” that can live forever — or can be killed with the flick of a molecular switch.” ³ According to DARPA’s 2011 budget, ⁴ the Pentagon is investing $6 Million into a project called BioDesign, ⁵ with the objective of eliminating “the randomness of natural evolutionary advancement.” ⁶ “The plan would assemble the latest bio-tech knowledge to come up with living, breathing creatures that are genetically engineered to “produce the intended biological effect.” ⁷ “DARPA wants the organisms to be fortified with molecules that bolster cell resistance to death, so that the lab-monsters can ‘ultimately be programmed to live indefinitely.’” ⁸ Of course DARPA is taking every precaution to create a “synthetic organism ‘self-destruct’ option (i.e., a ‘molecular kill-switch‘) to be implemented upon nefarious removal of organism.” ⁹ According to Thomson Reuters’ Kate Kelland, in November of 2009 “Britain’s Academy of Medical Sciences launched a study Tuesday to look at the use of animals containing human material in scientific research.” ¹⁰ Martin Bobrow, a professor of medical genetics at Cambridge University says: “There is a whole raft of new scientific techniques that will make it not only easier but also more important to be able to do these cross-species experiments.” ¹¹ In the same article, Kelland goes on to report “a row erupted in Britain over new laws allowing the creation of human-animal embryos for experimentation.” ¹²

"In a nutshell, the argument is that even though creating PostHumans may be a very dangerous social experiment, it is even more dangerous not to attempt it." — Assistant Professor Mark Walker, New Mexico State University, TransHumanism, Destroying The Barriers. ·

The worldwide race for technological military superiority is on. As we can plainly see now … Wolverine … my childhood “super soldier,” ^13,14 is not Science Fiction anymore.

Personhood: It’s Science With Boundaries

"All of the boundaries are up for grabs. All of the boundaries that have defined us as human beings, boundaries between a human being and an animal and between a human being and a super human being or a god." — Professor Leon R. Kass, former Chairman, President’s Council on Bioethics, TransHumanism, Destroying The Barriers. ·

Science without boundaries is madness. Just because we can do something does not mean we should. So to ensure we are always talking about “human beings” and not about cross-species experiments, human-animal embryos, living, breathing super soldiers, animals or those of us that can physically demonstrate “rational attributes” and “sentience” on demand, I inserted the word “only” in the 2012 version of the language for the California Human Rights Amendment. Personhood is not simply a Pro-Life tactic to establish legal rights for the child in the womb or a “no-holds-barred” uphill charge to the front door of the United States Supreme Court in an effort to overturn Roe v. Wade … No! … It’s about man being made in the image of God. It’s about God breathing into man His breath of life and man becoming a living soul. It’s about recognizing the inestimable value, the inherent dignity and the incomprehensible quality of all human life. It’s about equality, justice and freedom, regardless of the means by which a human being was procreated, method of reproduction, age, race, sex, gender, physical well-being, function, or condition of physical or mental dependency and/or disability. For once and for all time, it’s about the God given right to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness for every human being.

Brothers, we really need to talk.

Note(s):
· Hunter Gatheress, “The DARPA War Fighter Enhancement Programs” (http://bit.ly/zsHB5Y).
· TransHumanism, Destroying The Barriers, with Tom Horn, an approximately 60 minute DVD (http://bit.ly/oChCoS).
Reference(s):
01. Marvel Entertainment, LLC a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world’s most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of over 8,000 characters featured in a variety of media over seventy years (http://bit.ly/bycopQ).
02. “DARPA’s mission is to maintain the technological superiority of the U.S. military and prevent technological surprise from harming our national security by sponsoring revolutionary, high-payoff research bridging the gap between fundamental discoveries and their military use (http://www.darpa.mil).
03. Katie Drummond, “Pentagon Looks to Breed Immortal ‘Synthetic Organisms,’ Molecular Kill-Switch Included”, Wired Magazine, Category: DarpaWatch, February 5, 2010 (http://bit.ly/bDhCJG).
04. “Department of Defense Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 President’s Budget” (http://bit.ly/w8OBzC).
05. Ibid., Page 264 (Search on “BioDesign“)
06. Ibid., Page 265 (Search on “BioDesign“)
07. op. cit., Katie Drummond
08. op. cit., Katie Drummond
09. op. cit., Department of Defense Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 President’s Budget, Page 265 (Search on “BioDesign“).
10. Kate Kelland “Scientists Want Debate On Animals With Human Genes”, Reuters, November 9th, 2009 (http://reut.rs/fquN9W).
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid.
13. Moreno, Jonathan D. (2006). “Mind Wars: Brain Research and National Defense.” Dana Press, ISBN 1932594167.
14. Goldblatt, Michael (2002). “DARPA’s programs in enhancing human performance”. In Roco, Mihail C.; Bainbridge, William Sims. Managing Nano-Bio-Info-Cogno Innovations: Converging Technologies in Society (1st Edition). Arlington, VA: Springer. pp. 339-340. ISBN 1402041063.: cited in McIntosh, Daniel (December 2008). “Human, TransHuman, PostHuman: Implications of Evolution-By-Design for Human Security”. Journal of Human Security 4 (3): 4-20.

Personhood: I Am Somebody

William H. Borders ·

“I Am Somebody.” is a poem written in the 1950s by Reverend William Holmes Borders, Sr. (1905-1993), Senior Pastor at Wheat Street Baptist Church and civil rights activist in Atlanta where he campaigned for civil rights and distinguished himself as a charismatic spokesperson for the city’s poor and dispossessed. ¹ In 1971, a bold and unapologetically Pro-Life Jesse Jackson ² recited his version of the poem on Sesame Street to emphasize the individuality and significance of all people, regardless of size, appearance, race, or economic status. The scene took place on the stoop of 123 Sesame Street, involving a large group of children of different colors, who together and in chorus joined in on the now legendary “I Am Somebody.” portions of the poem. ³

Here is the poem as we take a walk down memory lane:

"I am Somebody! I am Somebody! I may be poor, But I am Somebody. I may be young, But I am Somebody. I may be on welfare, But I am Somebody. I may be small, But I am Somebody. I may have made mistakes, But I am Somebody. My clothes are different, My face is different, My hair is different, But I am Somebody. I am Black, Brown, or White. I speak a different language But I must be respected, protected, never rejected. I am God’s child!" — Reverend Jesse Jackson recited this poem on Sesame Street in 1971. Yasmin Brown was featured in this episode.

Personhood: Understands I Am Somebody

PERSONHOOD IN BLACK AMERICA is not simply a Pro-Life strategy or tactic that establishes legal rights for all human beings at all stages of our development. There is a much deeper desire within the hearts of the disenfranchised to be accepted, approved, acknowledged, affirmed and have the attention of the supreme and highest law of the land as a person than there is a desire to overturn Roe v. Wade.

“I AM SOME BODY.”

PERSONHOOD IN BLACK AMERICA speaks to equal treatment under the law that without compromise or prejudice, recognizes all of us as human beings entitled to an equality, a freedom, a brotherhood, a type of justice that ensures access to entrepreneurship, full and fair employment opportunities, decent housing, integrated education and culture, health care, child care, clothing and three meals a day.

“I AM SOME BODY.”

PERSONHOOD IN BLACK AMERICA speaks to a day where men, women, boys and girls are “not judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character” ⁴ and “the tired, poor and huddled masses yearning to breathe free” ⁵ can look to a brighter future as they walk through the “Golden Door” of the American dream.

“I AM SOME BODY.”

PERSONHOOD IN BLACK AMERICA speaks to the heartfelt need for the highest and supreme law of our land to be amended with words so clearly defined that they are absent of “interposition and nullification” ⁶ so that a person is a person “regardless of the means by which they were procreated, method of reproduction, age, race, sex, gender, physical well-being, function, or condition of physical or mental dependency and/or disability” ⁷ unto death.

“I AM SOME BODY.”

PERSONHOOD IN BLACK AMERICA speaks to the need to have the words “we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” ⁸ apply to all human life and not just some human life.

“I AM SOME BODY.”

PERSONHOOD IN BLACK AMERICA understands that “the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me” ⁹ and because we “think that is pretty important,” ¹⁰ seeks to ensure all human beings, from the child in the womb, to the senior citizen facing end of life decisions, to the disabled war veteran are protected by love and by law.

“I AM SOME BODY.”

I hope the Pro-Life movement is listening.

It’s not just about an “all hands on deck” effort to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Personhood: Acknowledges I Am Somebody

"I am a true Christian, for indeed, I practiced the religion of Jesus at points better than my master from whom I learned it." — Reverend William Holmes Borders. This is the last sentence in his poem “I Am Somebody” introduced in 1943. ·

Women in the 1963 March On Washington

Personhood is a movement working to respect the God given right to life by recognizing all human beings as persons who are “created in the image of God“ ¹¹ without exceptions. Personhood brings to light the internationally recognized and well documented truth regarding the beginning of our biological development, ¹² and by definition and design sets the stage for a complete victory. Personhood defines “winning” in a way that meets the physical, spiritual and emotional needs of men, women and children everywhere and for all time. Personhood understands I Am Somebody. Personhood gets it.

Women in the 1963 March On Washington

It’s time the Pro-Life movement stops fighting Pro-Lifers, recognizes that there are different Spiritual Gifts, but only one Holy Gift Giver ¹³ and stand together united for the greater good of all humanity. For one, I believe the Pro-Life movement can work together as we stand for life. Like Martin Luther King, Jr., “I refuse to accept the idea that the ‘isness’ of man’s present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal ‘oughtness’ that forever confronts him.” ¹⁴ I may be poor. I may be young. I may be on welfare. I may be small. I may have made mistakes. My clothes may be different. My face may be different. My hair may be different. I may be Black, Brown, or White. I may speak a different language than you, but I Am Somebody. I must be respected. I must be protected. I must never be rejected. I am a child of God!

Brothers, we really need to talk.

Note(s):
· William Holmes Borders, first penned “I Am Somebody.” He introduced his poem to the world on Sunday, January 10, 1943. The African American Lectionary provides both the history and the full text of his original work (http://bit.ly/Ag6jt3).
Reference(s):
01. William Holmes Borders (1905-1993), (http://bit.ly/dc84Vo).
02. “How we respect life is the over- riding moral issue,” by Jesse Jackson; Right to Life News, January 1977 (http://bit.ly/n6O0n0).
03. Although the Reverend Jesse Jackson did not write the poem: “I Am Somebody” it became almost a calling card for him. He has recited the line in movies and other individuals in movies and songs have used his recitation of the poem. The full text was included in the book Sesame Street Unpaved.
04. “I Have a Dream” (1963) is the most widely known of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speeches and was delivered from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963 at the March for Jobs & Freedom, generally referred to as the March on Washington (http://bit.ly/mW7f5O).
05. The Message of the State of Liberty inscribed on the tablet that the “Mother of Exiles” is carrying (http://bit.ly/N6rhA).
06. op.cit. Dr. King’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech.
07. The language of the California Human Rights Amendment (http://www.iamaperson.us).
08. In Congress, July 4, 1776, The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America (http://bit.ly/bPqF8f).
09. Martin Luther King, Jr., “It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that’s pretty important.” Quoted in The Wall Street Journal, Nov. 13, 1962.
10. Ibid.
11. Genesis 1:27 (KJV): “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” (http://bit.ly/4oRJs6).
12. Carnegie Stages of Early Human Embryonic Development (http://1.usa.gov/uXOwVZ).
13. 1st Corinthians 12:4(KJV): “Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.” (http://bit.ly/e8OPks).
14. Martin Luther King, Jr., Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech, Oslo, Norway, 1964, (http://bit.ly/p7Unnx).

Personhood: The Fact Of Existing

"I perceived clearly that I was participating in a truly significant historic event in which a consensus had been reached as to the supreme value of the human person, a value that did not originate in the decision of a worldly power, but rather in the fact of existing—which gave rise to the inalienable right to live free from want and oppression and to fully develop one’s personality." — Hernán Santa Cruz of Chile, member of the drafting sub-Committee of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. ·

Personhood: Is Being Human Enough?

Hernán Santa Cruz of Chile

The “Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)” was adopted Friday, December 10th, 1948 and is understood to be the foundation of international human rights law. The PREAMBLE makes clear that the “recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.” Since its adoption more than 80 international human rights treaties, declarations, conventions, bills, provisions have formed a comprehensive and legally binding power for the promotion and protection of human rights. However, simply being a member of the “human family” or “the fact of existing” is not enough to be covered by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Today special interests groups have taken the lead in defining the body of international human rights law by promoting their own agendas to address concerns such as racial discrimination, torture, enforced disappearances, disabilities, and the rights of women, children, migrants, minorities, and indigenous peoples.

Personhood: Before As Well As After Birth

"WHEREAS the child, by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth." — Declaration of the Rights of The Child, Adopted by UN General Assembly Resolution 1386 (XIV) of 10 December 1959 ·

Personhood: Human Rights and the Unborn Child

Rita Joseph, Australia

Rita Joseph has lectured at the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family Studies in Melbourne, Australia and represented family concerns at United Nation (U.N.) conferences. In her masterpiece, Human Rights and the Unborn Child, Rita successfully argues that the right to life of the child in the womb is clearly defined in the U.N. Declaration of the Rights of the Child (1959). ¹ Rita is on record as saying the right to life of the child in the womb has “been obscured for some decades now by the rise of a new pro-abortion ideology in the form of radical feminism” and such forces have conducted “a masterly campaign of ideological reinterpretation.” ² Rita adds that the word “child” was understood in 1948 to include the child in the womb, (see the quotes above) and references the historical and legal prohibitions on aborting any woman “with child” and the original Hippocratic prohibition on abortion which was reaffirmed by the World Medical Association’s Declaration of Geneva only three months before the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “I will maintain the utmost respect for human life from the time of conception, even under threat …“ ³ If you’re reading this column and know Rita, tell her I said “Thank You!” Her commitment to the child in the womb reflects a deep and abiding love for Christ. I’m hoping we can meet and talk one day.

Personhood: The Morality Of The 21st Century

"The morality of the 21st century will depend on how we respond to this simple but profound question: Does every human life have equal moral value simply and merely because it is human?" — Wesley J. Smith, Featured on Starbuck’s take-away coffee cups as part of its “The Way I See It” 2006 Campaign ·

Personhood: Again, Is Being Human Enough?

Wesley J. Smith, J.D.

In 2010, Lori and I were invited to a Napa Wine Cave to hear the latest on Proposition 8 (Traditional Marriage) from the lawyers themselves. The cave was awesome, the meeting was attended by both National and Statewide leaders and very, very informative. Still, my heart was broken in that meeting. One panel discussion opened this way: “We do not want to make the same mistake the Pro-Life movement is making. Millions of lives have been lost since 1973. RIGHT HERE and RIGHT NOW — is our 1973 and we will not settle for ‘Domestic Partnerships’ or ‘Civil Unions!’ We will stand together and stand without compromise for traditional marriage. One Man. One Woman. For Life.” I cried. Not because I did not agree with the statement. I cried because the statement was true. Millions of lives have been lost since 1973 and the Pro-Life movement is fighting over strategy and tactics. It’s Personhood versus Overturning Roe v. Wade. Why? We need both. Furthermore, we can have both because our God shall supply all our needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus ⁴ (Philippians 4:19). If the morality of the 21st century depends on how we respond to this question: “Does every human life have equal moral value simply and merely because it is human?” If we believe that every human life has equal moral value. If we believe that being human is enough. If we want to avoid thirty-nine (39) more years of legalized abortion on demand. Then perhaps ending abortion in 2012 will depend upon us seeing the value of meeting the physical and heartfelt needs of men, women and children ⁵ (James 2:15,16), preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality ⁶ (1st Timothy 5:21) and working together as brothers and sisters in the Body of Christ “simply and merely because” we are human.

Brothers, we really need to talk.

Note(s):
· The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 10 December 1948, was the result of the experience of the Second World War (http://bit.ly/SqjvG).
· Declaration of the Rights of the Child, G.A. res. 1386 (XIV), 14 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 16) at 19, U.N. Doc. A/4354 (1959), (http://bit.ly/vQVCL2).
· Wesley J. Smith, Featured on Starbuck’s take-away coffee cups as part of its “The Way I See It” 2006 Campaign (http://bit.ly/b83dKq).
Reference(s):
01. Women for Faith & Family, Voices Editorial Board, Rita Joseph (http://bit.ly/s1jVJ4).
02. “International Human-Rights Law and the Unborn Child”, by John Keown, September 24, 2010, (http://bit.ly/cK8JjV).
03. Ibid.
04. Philippians 4:19: ”But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” (http://bit.ly/rFcJsR).
05. James 2:15,16: ”If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?” (http://bit.ly/tShYqU).
06. 1st Timothy 5:21: ”I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality.” (http://bit.ly/vuYCim).

Personhood: Defining Humanity

"A philosophy of reason will define a human being as one which demonstrates self-awareness, volition and rationality. Thus it should be recognized that not all men are human." — Winston L. Duke, “The new biology”, in Reason Magazine, “Parahuman Reproduction, Android Cloning, The New Biology, Artificial Synthesis, Genetic Engineering, Brain Transfers”, August 1972. ·

Definitions Define Us

According to Dictionary.Com, the most-visited and most trusted online dictionary in the world and for my purposes conveniently located in Oakland, California, a “human being” is “[1] any individual of the genus Homo, especially a member of the species Homo Sapiens. [2] a person, especially as distinguished from other animals or as representing the human species. [3] a member of any of the races of Homo sapiens; person; man, woman, or child” ¹ Biblically speaking, God created the first human being ^2,3 and by way of the Strong’s Dictionary the word man (אָדָם) used in Genesis 1:26 is ‘adam aw-dawm’, an individual or the species, mankind (i.e. a human being). ⁴

Definitions Define Who We Are

The VisualThesaurus.Com is an online and interactive tool that reveals the connections between words and meaning, the term “human being” can be conceptualized as illustrated in figure 1 on the left. ⁵ Here we find a world of words connected by solid lines that have the same meaning (i.e., synonyms). Their meanings are in turn represented by circles, color-coded to indicate the part of our speech, such as nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs that they belong to. Antonyms or words that express opposite concepts and are visually connected by dashed red lines.

Definitions Define What We Are

If we take advantage of the power the VisualThesaurus.Com and click on the term “human” we discover a stunning and captivating visual description of our humanity expressed in and by our own words.

Again, words connected by solid lines have the same meaning and words connected by dashed red lines such as the term nonhuman express the exact opposite meaning. If definitions are linguistic expressions of ourselves, who we are and specifically who is and by default who is not among us, then regardless of our ability to demonstrate “self-awareness, volition and rationality” clearly all of us are human.

Definitions Define What’s Legal

Legally, a person has been recognized by the law as a person, not because he or she is human, but because rights and duties have been ascribed to him or her by those who have already been ascribed such rights and duties. ⁶ This, in part, explains why women, children, non-landowners, minorities, slaves, etc., have been legally oppressed over the years. Right now, the child inside the womb is fighting for such rights and duties. Without such rights and duties (i.e., ‘personhood‘ a term used by Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court Harry Andrew Blackmun in Roe v. Wade ⁷) the child inside the womb, an innocent human being, can be killed, in all 50 states, through all nine months of pregnancy, for virtually any reason at all, even though it is illegal to take the life of an innocent human being.

Definitions Define The Real Question

Personhood clearly defines humanity by recognizing human beings as “created in the image of God” from the beginning of their biological development, without exceptions and the recipients of the God given right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as legal persons. Today, the question is not whether there is room in the linguistic world above for the child inside the womb. Clearly there is room. Clearly the child inside the womb is human. Clearly Winston L. Duke is wrong. The real question is, why is abortion on demand still legal? If Margaret Sanger, ⁸ the founder of Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the United States of America with 85 independent affiliates operating 820 abortion clinics around the country, ⁹ today’s United States Supreme Court Justices, ¹⁰ the entire Pro-Life community, and the holy Body of Christ can admit that abortion takes the life of an innocent human being … I cannot help but wonder … what reason can we “the people” outside the womb, give God for tacitly consenting to the shedding of innocent blood ¹¹ within the womb?

Brothers, we really need to talk.

Note(s):
· Special thanks to Dianne N. Irving, M.A., Ph.D. for her very excellent research and work entitled: “Any Human Cell — iPS, Direct Programmed, Embryonic, Fetal or Adult — Can Be Genetically Engineered to Asexually Reproduce New Human Embryos for Purposes of Reproduction (“Infertility”) (http://bit.ly/soSNbY).
Reference(s):
01. Dictionary.Com’s mission is to “redefine reference and learning in the context of emerging technology while preserving the painstaking traditions of expertise and integrity that everyone expects from a dictionary.” (http://bit.ly/9MVmUD).
02. Genesis 1:26,27 says: “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness … So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” (King James Version)
03. Genesis 2:7 says: “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” (King James Version).
04. The Strong’s Dictionary is a concordance of the King James Bible (KJV) that was constructed under the direction of Dr. James Strong (1822-1894) and first published in 1890. It is an exhaustive cross-reference of every word in the KJV back to the word in the original text.(http://bit.ly/tC0TCF).
05. VisualThesaurus.Com “is an interactive dictionary and thesaurus which creates word maps that blossom with meanings and branch to related words. Its innovative display encourages exploration and learning.” (http://bit.ly/RGvU2).
06. (http://bit.ly/sVZyaN).
07. “Roe v. Wade, 410 U. S. 113 (1973)”. U.S. Supreme Court.
08. Sanger, Margaret (1938). Margaret Sanger, An Autobiography. New York: W. W. Norton. p. 217.
09. Wikipedia, Planned Parenthood (http://bit.ly/4AgtGW).
10. “The Place of Women on the Court”, NYTimes.com, Thursday, July 9th, 2009 (http://bit.ly/hI1Nfq).
11. Proverb 6:16,17, “These six things does the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him. A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood.” (King James Version) (http://bit.ly/vpI8oP).

Personhood: Legal Tactics

“A rift over legal tactics has split the Pro-Life movement” ¹

Vision, Strategy, and Tactics

"Where there is no vision, the people perish." — King Solomon (Proverbs 29:18)

Vision is defined as your dream of the future. Strategy is defined as your long-range plan to make the dream happen so it may need to change in response to internal or external conditions, but strategy changes should only happen with considerable thought. Tactics are defined as the specific actions you will take to achieve your strategy. Tactics are the most flexible. If a tactic isn’t working, adjust it and try again. It is often recommended to start with a vision (Proverbs 29:18) and then work down to the tactics. While strategy and tactics can and should change over time, your vision will be the anchor that holds the strategies and tactics together when the waves get high and the storm billows blow.

Legal Tactics

"Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory." — Sun Tzu (孫子) ·

Legal tactics in opposition to legalized abortion include promoting the Pro-Life position to the public, electing and lobbying public officials, mass demonstrations, literature distribution, sidewalk counseling, supporting pregnancy care centers, public and/or private prayer vigils, graphic signs, and even specialty license plates. All have their place. All have their strengths. All have their weaknesses. All have their ardent followers. All have their opponents.

Time and Tactics

Today it’s been 14,203 days or thirty-eight (38) years, ten (10) months and twenty (20) days since Monday, January 22nd, 1973. Things change. Since Roe v. Wade and Doe V. Bolton we have lost the lives of over fifty-five (55) million babies and counting to surgical abortions during all nine (9) months of pregnancy alone. Right now, abortions are declining by just 1.2% a year. ² At that rate, it will take nearly one hundred (100) years to cut the annual death toll in half and two hundred (200) years to end abortion on demand all together. As I write this column, I am aware that Black America has lost over twenty (20) million of the over fifty-five (55) million lives lost to abortion and at the rate we are aborting our children, I am painfully aware that we won’t last another 100 years. If vision must be held on to. If strategy must be reviewed and reworked. If the Pro-Life movement is going to effect her strategy and achieve her vision of a world that respects life at all stages of development by love and by law, our tactics must be flexible.

The Art Of War

"Therefore, when I have won a victory I do not repeat my tactics but respond to circumstances in an infinite variety of ways." — Sun Tzu (孫子) ·

In the Pro-Life movement there is a “rift over legal tactics” among sincere and dedicated warriors. Many favor an all-out legal attack on Roe. v. Wade. However, at least twenty-five (25) cases ³ and briefs attempting to overturn Roe v. Wade including those cases and briefs arguing Fourteenth (14th) Amendment Personhood have been filed to no avail. Others favor strategies and tactics that install state laws that reduce, regulate or restrict abortion in an effort to chip away at Roe until higher polls and more political equity is in place to end legalized abortion. Still others favor and embrace strategies and tactics that do not include walking through the front door of the Supreme Court and arguing their case before the Bench.

We Wrestle Not Again Flesh And Blood

It’s easy to see the wisdom in the above quote. Sun Tzu, the celebrated military general and strategist who authored the definitive military treatise entitled “The Art of War,” clearly points out the need to be creative when developing strategies and tactics. However, it’s the words of the Apostle Paul to the angel of the church in Ephesus that come to my mind today. “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” ⁴ “There is utterly a fault among us.” ⁵ So we must “try every spirit” ⁶ and stop fighting one another. It’s time we all work together as the Body of Christ, fight sin from every vantage point as God has gifted each of us to do so, leave the results to God and give Him the glory for the great things He has done. Because “… whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” ⁷

Brothers, we really need to talk.

Note(s):
· Sun Tzu, “The Art of War”, is an ancient Chinese military treatise that is attributed to Sun Tzu (also referred to as “Sunzi” and “Sun Wu”). It is one of the oldest and most successful books on military strategy in the world. (http://www.sonshi.com).
Reference(s):
1. Erik Eckholm, “Anti-Abortion Groups Are Split on Legal Tactics”, New York Times, 12/04/2011 (http://nyti.ms/sH9vkS).
2. Dennis M. Howard, Founder and President of Movement for a Better Amrica, “Yes, we can end abortion within your lifetime and mine” (http://bit.ly/stU6f8).
3. Cases & Briefs Attempting to Overturn Roe v. Wade and/or arguing 14th Amendment Personhood, [Ordered by date of United States Supreme Court disposition with most recent first], June 15th, 2011 (http://bit.ly/vEeaEx).
4. Ephesians 6:12, King James Version of The Bible (http://bit.ly/3vP8jE).
5. 1st Corinthians 6:7a, King James Version of The Bible (http://bit.ly/t8iTum).
6. 1st John 4:1, King James Version of The Bible (http://bit.ly/hsBZpJ).
7. Romans 14:23, King James Version of The Bible (http://bit.ly/uRjoMP).

Personhood: Corporate Personhood

"On January 21st, 2010, with its ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are persons, entitled by the U.S. Constitution to buy elections and run our government. Human beings are people; corporations are legal fictions." — MoveToAmend.Org, dedicated to ending corporate rule and empowering democracy. ¹

Move To Amend (Learn More)

By definition, Corporate Personhood allows corporations to have rights and responsibilities similar to those of a natural person. By way of the Fourteenth Amendment (Amendment XIV) to the United States Constitution (adopted on July 9th, 1868), our courts have interpreted the word “person” to extended certain constitutional protections to corporations. MoveToAmend.Org is a bold coalition of organizations and individuals dedicated to ending the illegitimate but legal doctrines that prevent the American people from governing themselves. ²

Motion To Amend (Learn More)

“Corporations have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires,” wrote Stevens. “Corporations help structure and facilitate the activities of human beings, to be sure, and their ‘personhood’ often serves as a useful legal fiction. But they are not themselves members of ‘We the People’ by whom and for whom our Constitution was established.” — John Paul Stevens, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Dissenting Opinion in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 08-205 (2010) ³

MoveToAmend.Org’s “Motion To Amend“ ⁴ reads as follows:

We, the People of the United States of America, reject the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United, and move to amend our Constitution to:

• Firmly establish that money is not speech, and that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights.
• Guarantee the right to vote and to participate, and to have our vote and participation count.
• Protect local communities, their economies, and democracies against illegitimate "preemption" actions by global, national, and state governments.

Personhood: Human Personhood

"Act XII—Negro Womens Children To Serve According To The Condition Of The Mother: WHEREAS some doubts have arrisen whether children got by any Englishman upon a Negro woman should be slave or free, Be it therefore enacted and declared by this present grand assembly, that all children borne in this country shalbe held bond or free only according to the condition of the mother, And that if any christian shall committ ffornication with a Negro man or woman, hee or shee soe offending shall pay double the ffines imposed by the former act." — Act XII, Laws of Virginia, December 1662, Hening, Statutes at Large, 2: 170. ⁵

California Human Rights Amendment (Learn More)

Even before the foundation of the United States of America (Virginia, December 1662 ⁶), our leaders have repeatedly and deliberately failed to understand that personhood is intrinsic to being human. Today, the California Human Rights Amendment ⁷ understands this and gives “We, the People of the United States of America” an opportunity to finally get the life issue right. Perhaps Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States (1981-1989) and the 33rd Governor of California (1967-1975), said it best. “Despite the formidable obstacles before us, we must not lose heart. This is not the first time our country has been divided by a Supreme Court decision [ Roe v. Wade ] that denied the value of certain human lives. The Dred Scott decision of 1857 was not overturned in a day, or a year, or even a decade. At first, only a minority of Americans recognized and deplored the moral crisis brought about by denying the full humanity of our Black brothers and sisters; but that minority persisted in their vision and finally prevailed. They did it by appealing to the hearts and minds of their countrymen, to the truth of human dignity under God. From their example, we know that respect for the sacred value of human life is too deeply engrained in the hearts of our people to remain forever suppressed.” ⁸

The California Human Rights Amendment is the final chapter of the Civil Rights movement. Let’s work together and finish the job.

Brothers, we really need to talk.

Reference(s):
1. MoveToAmend.Org, “We the People, Not We the Corporations” (http://bit.ly/6g6i0k).
2. Ibid., About Us (http://bit.ly/9qShxp).
3. Associate Justice Justice Stevens dissenting opinion (http://bit.ly/5MEPOJ).
4. Motion To Amend (http://bit.ly/kRGO3u).
5. Act XII, Laws of Virginia, December 1662, Hening, Statutes at Large, 2: 170, (http://1.usa.gov/pMnhrJ).
6. Ibid.
7. California Human Rights Amendment (http://bit.ly/ubu5hT).
8. “Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation“, President, Ronald Reagan penned this in an article for The Human Life Review, It ran in the Review’s Spring 1983 (http://bit.ly/lTf36U).

Personhood: Settling The Science

“I’m pregnant. At what point in my pregnancy is it called a baby?” ¹

According to Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the United States of America: “Most medical authorities, including Planned Parenthood, agree that it becomes a baby after birth when it takes its first breath.” ² When addressing pregnancy itself, Planned Parenthood says: “Pregnancy begins when a fertilized egg implants in the uterus.” ³ To help us understand the relationship between “pregnancy” and “implantation”, Planned Parenthood has this to say: “Pregnancy begins when the ball of cells attaches to the lining of the uterus. This is called implantation. It usually starts about 6 days after fertilization and takes about 3-4 days to be complete.” ⁴ Okay, ladies, there you have it! “Most medical authorities” agree with Planned Parenthood. You’re not pregnant until “implantation” and it’s not a baby until it takes its “first breath.” Finally, science has settled the issue. Or has it?

Personhood: Settling The Science

“I’m pregnant. At what point in my pregnancy is it called a baby?” ⁵

"Any attempt to interfere with the development of the fertilized ovum is called an abortion." — Margaret Sanger, Family Limitation, Revised Sixth Edition, 1917.

Marian Anderson (1920)

The answer to this question tugs at the heart of the Pro-Life movement. So its important we hear from both sides of the debate. According to “most medical authorities” and Planned Parenthood a baby can exist at different states of human development. For example, when “it” (i.e., the baby) is delivered prematurely and breathes, he or she is a baby and therefore a person that should be protected by love and by law. However, when “it” (i.e., the baby) continues to grow in the womb (even to “full-term” ⁶), “it” is not a baby until after birth when “it” takes “its” first breath. Hmmmm … this is confusing. Apparently, “it” can become a baby and by means of that process a person, at any time. At this point, I can’t help but wonder why “most medical authorities” and Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the United States of America, would choose to embrace such faulty logic. Perhaps Marian Anderson, one of the most celebrated singers of the twentieth century and an important figure in the struggle for Black artists overcoming the illogical nature of racism and racial hatred in the United States can suggest an explanation. ⁷ According to Anderson, “Fear is a disease that eats away at logic and makes man inhuman.” ⁸ From my vantage point and because I believe truth as the power to set us free, it appears to me that “most medical authorities” and Planned Parenthood’s are deathly afraid of the financial consequences of the truth.

Personhood: Settling The Science

“I’m pregnant. At what point in my pregnancy is it called a baby?” ⁹

"Embryonic life commences with fertilization, and hence the beginning of that process may be taken as the point de depart of stage 1. Despite the small size (ca. 0.1 mm) and weight (ca. 0.004 mg) of the organism at fertilization, the embryo is “schon ein individual-spezifischer Mensch” [ Translation: "even one individual-specific human" ]" — Blechschmidt, 1972 ¹⁰

According to the Carnegie Stages of Early Human Embryonic Development, since 1942, and already documented for almost 60 years before then, at the first contact of the sperm with the oocyte you have the earliest stage of human life and human DNA. ¹¹ WOW! It appears, regarding the question: “I’m pregnant. At what point in my pregnancy is it called a baby?” that the science is settled after all and that “most medical authorities” and Planned Parenthood are wrong. At the moment of conception, that is when the spermatozoon makes contact with the occyte, momma is pregnant with child. ^{(12,13,14,15,16)} The California Human Rights Amendment, understands this profound truth. Click here to read our campaign message “Why Personhood?“

Recently, in an online New York Times opinion column, Notre Dame philosophy professor Gary Gutting argues that “those who do not agree that a fertilized egg is a person cannot argue that abortion is wrong because an embryo or fetus has human DNA.” ¹⁷ Wesley J. Smith, J.D., my friend and Special Consultant to the Center for Bioethics and Culture Network put it this way on the back of a Starbucks Cup on Father’s Day, Sunday, June 18th, 2006: “The morality of the 21st century will depend on how we respond to this simple but profound question: Does every human life have equal moral value simply and merely because it is human?” ¹⁸ For Christ’s sake, I hope we’re all answering YES!

Brothers, we really need to talk.

Reference(s):
01. Planned Parenthood, Health Topics Q & A (http://bit.ly/fYVM7S).
02. Ibid.
03. Planned Parenthood, Stages of Pregnancy at a Glance (http://bit.ly/m0qrA0).
04. Ibid., Weeks 3-4.
05. Planned Parenthood, Health Topics Q & A, op. cit.
06. Abort73.Com, “U.S. Abortion Law” (http://bit.ly/hnGIzT).
07. “Marian Anderson”, Women In History, Living vignettes of notable women from U.S. History (http://bit.ly/9qqbFe).
08. “Fear is a disease that eats away at logic and makes man inhuman.” — Marian Anderson,The James Logan Courier, Sunday, February 27, 2011 (http://bit.ly/uDc7D7).
09. Planned Parenthood, Health Topics Q & A, op. cit.
10. Carnegie Stages of Early Human Embryonic Development, Stage 1 (http://1.usa.gov/uXOwVZ).
11. Ibid.
12. “The term conception, however, may refer either to fertilization or to implantation and hence (like gestation) is best avoided.” [Ronan O'Rahilly and Fabiola Muller, Human Embryology & Teratology, (New York: Wiley-Liss, 1994), page 19]
13. “Human pregnancy begins with the fusion of an egg and a sperm … finally, the fertilized egg, now properly called an embryo, must make its way into the uterus.” [Bruce M. Carlson, Human Embryology and Developmental Biology (St. Louis, MO: Mosby, 1994), (page 3)]
14. “Human pregnancy begins with the fusion of an egg and a sperm, but a great deal of preparation precedes this event. First both male and female sex cells must pass through a long series of changes (gametogenesis) that convert them genetically and phenotypically into mature gametes, which are capable of participating in the process of fertilization. Next, the gametes must be released from the gonads and make their way to the upper part of the uterine tube, where fertilization normally takes place. … Finally, the fertilized egg, now properly called an embryo, must make its way into the uterus … ”. [Bruce Carlson, Human Embryology & Developmental Biology (St. Louis, MO: Mosby, 1999), (page 2).
15. "In this text, we begin our description of the developing human with the formation and differentiation of the male and female sex cells or gametes, which will unite at fertilization to initiate the embryonic development of a new individual. … Fertilization takes place in the oviduct [not the uterus] … resulting in the formation of a zygote containing a single diploid nucleus.” [William J. Larsen, Human Embryology (New York: Churchill Livingstone, 1997) (page 1).
16. "The organism proceeds along the uterine tube by means not entirely understood (reviewed by Adams, 1960). It leaves the tube and enters the uterine cavity during the third or fourth day after ovulation, when probably 8-12 cells are present, and when the endometrium is early in the secretory phase (corresponding to the luteal phase of the ovarian cycle)." [Carnegie Stages of Early Human Embryonic Development, Stage 2, at: http://1.usa.gov/uXOwVZ.]
17. Gary Gutting, The New York Times, “On Abortion and Defining a ‘Person’”, November 30, 2011 (http://nyti.ms/tFgd4M).
18. Wesley J. Smith, Featured on Starbuck’s take-away coffee cups as part of its “The Way I See It” 2006 Campaign (http://bit.ly/b83dKq).

Personhood: Beyond Roe and Doe

It’s Not About Roe v. Wade

“The late Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Harry Andrew Blackmun, best known as the author of the Roe v Wade, was a determined advocate for the decision wrote the Court’s opinion.” — Harold Andrew Blackmun (November 12, 1908-March 4, 1999)

Justice Harry Blackmun

Roe v. Wade was a controversial landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court on the issue of abortion. The Court decided that a right to privacy under the due process clause in the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution extends to a woman’s decision to have an abortion. ¹ Doe v. Bolton, was another landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court overturning the abortion law of Georgia. ² Here the Court’s opinion in Doe v. Bolton stated that a woman may obtain an abortion after viability, if necessary to protect her health. Both Supreme Court decisions were released on January 22, 1973. Sitting United States Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was appointed to the Court in 1993 by President Bill Clinton and is the second woman to serve on the Supreme Court, after Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Here are her comments regarding the United States Supreme Court Roe v. Wade decision: “Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of.” ³ Eliminating minority populations is what abortion is all about. However, overturning Roe v. Wade is not an effort supported by Black America.

It’s Not About Roe v. Wade

(Part 1 of 3) · ”In a passionate letter, published in Ms. Magazine and distributed in leaflets all around the country, Donna Brazile, Byllye Avery, Shirley Chisholm, Julianne Malveaux, Jewell Jackson McCabe, Eleanor Holmes Norton, C. Delores Tucker all pleaded for understanding and conversation around the subject of abortion. They wrote: We understand why African-American women risked their lives then and why they seek safe, legal abortion now. It’s been a matter of survival …” — Latoya Peterson, “Blacks and Roe v. Wade, The Root, Posted: January 21st, 2010 (http://wapo.st/7ey0fY)

2003 Roe v. Wade Rally

Since 1973 we have suffered the death of over 55 million babies, over 20 million of those Black American and counting. Black America is the abortion industries #1 target and #1 customer. ⁴ As Black American’s we abort our children at such staggering rates that our future is at risk. Black American’s consistently and with no end in sight, elect abortion supporters at every level of government. Black American’s overwhelmingly support our President who is willing to shut down the entire government to protect the funding of Planned Parenthood (the largest abortion provider in the country) with tax-payer dollars and stand ready to reelect him in 2012. It is Black America’s support for Roe v. Wade that lends Planned Parenthood an illegitimate air of credibility as an organization that understands and meets the needs of minority women facing a difficult decision. This is the reason why it is so hard to defund Planned Parenthood. Any politician who votes to defund Planned Parenthood will be viewed as racist and misogynistic and in turn face serious reelection issues. So why doesn’t Black America support the efforts to overturn Roe v. Wade, a Supreme Court decision that’s easily one of the worst decisions the Court has ever made? ⁵

It’s Not About Roe v. Wade

(Part 2 of 3) · ”… Hunger and homelessness. Inadequate housing and income to properly provide for themselves and their children. Family instability. Rape. Incest. Abuse. Too young, too old, too sick, too tired. Emotional, physical, mental, economic, social …” — Latoya Peterson, “Blacks and Roe v. Wade, The Root, Posted: January 21st, 2010 (http://wapo.st/7ey0fY)


Today, it’s been almost 155 years since the Dred Scott decision and yet America still hasn’t nailed down personhood for all.

Here’s the timeline:

1857: Dred Scott Decision.

The Supreme Court decision that held that Black Americans could not be citizens of the United States of America.

1860: Abraham Lincoln elected President.

The election of Abraham Lincoln, arguably the first Republican President of the United States of American, changed the game. However, even after Lincoln’s victory and his now famous campaign debates and speeches that opposed the expansion of slavery in the United States, southern slave states declared secession.

1861-1865: American Civil War.

After a Civil War that produced about 1,030,000 casualties (3% of the United States population at that time), including about 620,000 soldier deaths (two-thirds of which were by disease) it was still necessary to adopt federal amendments to recognize the personhood of Black Americans.

1863: Emancipation Proclamation.

This executive order that did not make the ex-slaves, called Freedmen, citizens but (Thank God!) at least declared Black Americans a free people.

1865: Thirteenth Amendment.

While the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery, a legal strategy used to violently oppress Black Americans, it did not make “Freedmen” and “Freedwomen” citizens.

1866: Civil Rights Act.

The Civil Rights Act of 1866, was a federal law that was intended to protect the Civil Rights of Black Americans, in the wake of the American Civil War. It was enacted by Congress over the veto of Democratic President Andrew Johnson.

1868: Fourteenth Amendment.

The Fourteenth Amendment was a “Reconstruction Amendment” that provided a definition of citizenship that overruled the Supreme Court’s 1857 Dred Scott decision by using the term person three (3) times in Section 1 alone.

1875: Civil Rights Act.

This Republican backed bill guaranteed that everyone, regardless of race, color, or previous condition of servitude, was entitled to the same treatment in “public accommodations” (i.e. inns, public conveyances on land or water, theaters, and other places of public amusement).

1896: Homer Plessy decision.

Homer Plessy was arrested, tried and convicted of violating one of Louisiana’s racial segregation laws based on the malevolent doctrine of “Separate But Equal.” Like slavery this strategy redefined the definition of personhood of Black Americans guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment.

1954: Brown v. Board of Education Decision.

This decision dismantled racial segregation in the United States, but the Supreme Court again retreated from it’s own decision by approving the far reaching Pupil Placement Laws. ⁶

1964: Civil Rights Act.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 emulated the rarely enforced Civil Rights Act of 1875. It ended unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace and by facilities that served the general public (“public accommodations”).

1973: Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton.

The Court decided that a right to privacy under the due process clause in the Fourteenth Amendment that prohibits state and local governments from depriving persons of life, liberty, or property without certain steps being taken to ensure fairness, extends to a woman’s decision to have the life of the child in her womb aborted through all nine months of pregnancy.

It’s Not About Roe v. Wade

(Part 3 of 3) · ”… the reasons for not carrying a pregnancy to term are endless and varied, personal, urgent and private. And for all these pressing reasons, African-American women once again will be among the first forced to risk their lives if abortion is made illegal.” — Latoya Peterson, “Blacks and Roe v. Wade, The Root, Posted: January 21st, 2010 (http://wapo.st/7ey0fY)


In the mind of Black America, Roe v. Wade, is at best America’s way of providing a “socioeconomic safety net” for the poor or those vulnerable to poverty from falling below a certain status level or deeper into a tax-payer padded pit that’s both legal and my right to choose when I can’t see my way out of a bad situation. At worst Roe v. Wade is just the latest weapon America is using to oppress the personhood of communities of color for her own personal profit. The bottom line is Black America has no faith in America and no hope of ever participating in the American Dream. Roe v. Wade can be overturned today and Black America, Planned Parenthood’s #1 target and #1 customer, will still struggle with a perpetual pain and an incurable wound which refuses to be healed. Black America, which in addition to having the highest abortion rates in the country, also has the highest STD rates, the highest percentage of unwed mothers and the highest percentage of unemployed, is like Jeremiah (Jeremiah 15:18), asking God “wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and as waters that fail?” ⁷

It’s Not About Roe v. Wade

“The Negro cannot win … if he is willing to sell the future of his children for his personal and immediate comfort and safety.” — Martin Luther King, Jr. (“The Living King”, Ebony, Vol. 41, No. 3, January 1986, Page 63.)


Black America cares more about “Equality” and “Justice” than about overturning Roe v. Wade. Because “nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care,” we care more about being included in the best-known sentence in the English language, (“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”) than we do about overturning Roe v. Wade. Because the Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the land, the framework for the organization of our government and the final arbiter in the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States, we care more about installing a definition of personhood that applies to everyone regardless of the means by which they were procreated, method of reproduction, age, race, sex, gender, physical well-being, function, or condition of physical or mental dependency and/or disability or previous condition of servitude than we do about overturning Roe v. Wade. It’s not about overturning Roe v. Wade. It’s about people. It’s about helping hurting people. So shouldn’t we, as the Body of Christ, leave the results to God, give Him the glory for the great things He has done and work together to help hurting people?

Brothers, we really need to talk.

Reference(s):
1. Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1972). Findlaw.com. Retrieved 2007-01-26. It should be noted that Roe herself opposes Roe. In 1995, Norma L. McCorvey revealed that she became pro-life and is now a vocal opponent to abortion.
2. Sandra Cano, a 22-year-old mother of three who was nine weeks pregnant at the time the lawsuit was filed, describes herself as pro-life and claims her attorney, Margie Pitts Hames, lied to her in order to have a plaintiff. (White, Gayle. “Roe v. Wade Role Just a Page in Rocky Life Story”).
3. “The Place of Women on the Court”, The New York Times, July 12, 2009, Emily Bazelon (http://bit.ly/eRam4I).
4. “Racial Targeting and Population Control”, Mark Crutcher, President, Life Dynamics Incorporated. “The numbers make it clear that the African-American and Hispanic communities have been targeted and logic makes it clear that this did not happen coincidentally or unintentionally.” (http://bit.ly/nFyUrU).
5. “Seven Supreme Court Decision”, Conflict of Interest, Walter B. Hoye II (http://bit.ly/kjmo2J).
6. “Report on the Commission of Education”. 1959. (http://bit.ly/tMtKQ5), Heinemann, Ronald L. (1962). Harry Byrd of Virginia, p. 350. University of Virginia Press, Charlottesville, Virginia.
7. Jeremiah 15:18 (KJV): “Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuses to be healed? Will you be altogether unto me as a deceitful brook, and as waters that fail?”