liveonearth | George Tiller (Reply)

This morning a doctor by this name was shot to death at church. He was one of the few docs in the US who performed late term abortions, and had long been hated by the "right to life" crowd. To me, anyone who shoots in cold blood does not deserve the name "right to life". It does the cause of life more harm than good, when sick people take matters into their own hands. I would like to see life better respected on all sides.

We need to TALK about abortion, but it is such a touchy issue for so many people that talk seems impossible. So the desperately moral use guns instead. It's the American way... I mean, after all, what do we do with our military, jetting around abroad murdering people? Who pays for the drones? We Americans pay taxes to this machine that kills for the common good. We are complicit in the same sort of thinking that the murderer espoused. Eliminate the bad guys and things will go better. I still think talking is smarter. If only we could bring the majority of reasonable people to the table, and shame the zealots into civilized behavior.

I am one of those who sits on the fence on abortion. I have never been forced to make the choice, and I do not know what I would have done. I don't like the idea of killing a fetus, but it seems better than bringing a child into terrible circumstances, or letting a birth compromise a family. It seems to me that with proper education and healthcare, we could AVOID the vast majority of unwanted pregnancies, and avoid the issues for the most part. We could, with enough time and excellent mediation, come to a legal and enforceable middle ground. We could say to each other "I may not always agree with your choice but I can agree to abide by this law". We sure need to. It's too late to disarm Americans. We have guns and big attitudes and not enough respect for life in all its forms.

So I say goodbye today to a doctor who did what he thought was right in the face of abrasive disapproval. He paid the top price. The 51 year old man also did what he thought was right when he pulled the trigger in a church...he's going to pay too. He will lose the remaining useful years of his life. It's tough to work for the greater good from behind bars. I don't think either one of them were in the right....and you know the saying about two wrongs.