Chuck Roots
24 October 2016
www.chuckroots.com
Up With Life
The election for the next president
of the United States is in two weeks. The outcome is being announced already in
the mainstream media. They are gushing over a Hillary victory. The polls are
supposedly providing the necessary support for such an expected outcome. Hogwash!
In our nation’s history, we have had
a number of surprise or unexpected results. A classic is the 1948 Thomas
Dewey/Harry Truman election night results. The Chicago Daily Tribune (later
changed to the Chicago Tribune) made an egregious faux-pas by prematurely
announcing that New York governor Thomas Dewey, a republican, had won the
election. The words, “Dewey Defeats Truman” were emblazoned across the top fold
of the paper’s early edition. Why was this mistake made? Two reasons: 1. The
early results of the race seemed to favor a clear victory for Dewey, and 2. The
Tribune had recently begun to use a new form of newspaper type which required
that they beginning the process of printing the first edition a few hours
earlier than had been required previously. Some 150,000 copies were distributed
before the actual results were confirmed with Truman the clear runaway winner.
It was no secret at the time that
the Chicago paper was Republican-leaning in its handling of political news. They
had referred to Truman as a “nincompoop” and Truman was no fan of the paper
either. When Truman saw the paper the day after the election he was elated,
holding up the erroneous headline for the press corps that was following him. The
now famous picture of a smilingly victorious Truman with paper in hand is part
of American history. Adding insult to injury, the Chicago Daily Tribune had
also announced that the Republicans would hold onto the seats in both the
Senate and the House of Representatives. Neither turned out to be true.
So, pardon me if I don’t get too
worked up over polls, papers, politicos and pundits ballyhooing election
results before the election has even taken place. This is especially true since
the Democrats seem to have control over a political machine that can dictate
what it desires. Fair and balanced, they are not.
Let’s remember something at this
point. Because the political system is broken beyond repair, at least within
the DC Beltway, Americans have become increasingly distrusting of anything coming
out of our nation’s capitol. Consider the rapid rise and popularity of the Republican-leaning
FOX News network. Many Americans are conservative in their outlook both
politically and socially. Because of the apparent bias in the rest of the media,
many Americans who care very much about the state of affairs in our country
feel they no longer have a voice. Many of those have dropped out of being
involved to the point of no longer believing that it matters. The game is
rigged.
Yet along comes a person who is not
part of the political system, and who is not a politician, and is saying many
of the things that the disenfranchised electorate has been feeling for a very
long time. Are they factored into the polls? I don’t know. What I do know is
this: It ain’t over till it’s over.
A segment in the third and final
presidential debate last week crystalized my position as to who I would vote
for on November 8th. The question of abortion came up in which
Hillary Clinton stated clearly that she was all about protecting women’s rights,
going so far as to say it was okay to abort a baby as late as the third
trimester, even during the ninth month. Donald Trump came out strongly against
this heinous, dreadful, inhumane practice that has plagued our nation for the
last 43 years. Even in the 1973 Roe v Wade landmark decision made by the United
States Supreme Court didn’t go as far as Hillary would like to go, legalizing
the aborting of a baby only in the first two trimesters.
Some may cry that I am setting up a
litmus test for who I would vote for in the presidential election. And you know
what? That would be exactly right.
You see, for us as a nation to wantonly
destroy the life of a baby in the womb of its mother is still, for me, after
all these decades, too horrific an injustice to ever become acceptable. In the
last nine years my wife and I have been blessed with three precious
grandchildren. We were present for the birth of all of them. I look into their
faces and I see the face of God. Each one is a miracle, handcrafted by a loving
Creator. My heart thrills at them being alive and part of our family. To think
that they would no longer be a part of our lives brings such a heaviness in my
soul that I am reduced to the depths of sorrow.
I have said it many times during my
years of counseling, and simply sharing with people, that if a woman is
contemplating an abortion, I would plead with them to carry this baby to full
term at which point I would assume full responsibility for the child regardless
of the baby’s health, and absolving the mother (and father) of any and all
responsibilities. I still hold this position. As a Christian, I can do nothing
less than this.
Donald Trump is for protecting the
unborn and giving them a chance at life. Hillary is not. That makes my presidential
decision very simple.
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