Americans are pro-choice.
Wonder why Jefferson didn’t include the prerogative of options as an unalienable right – right along with life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness? Once abortion got framed in terms of choice, legality could hardly be questioned.
We can get our orange juice these days with double vitamin C, extra vitamin E or calcium added; no pulp, some pulp, or lots of pulp; frozen concentrate, or not from concentrate 100% pure premium fresh squeezed. We can get our Macintosh apples in red, green, or yellow and our Apple Macintoshes in grape, blueberry or tangerine. We can get our movies at theaters, on cable or satellite, or any time of day or night via pay-per-view or Blockbuster too.
Freedom of consumption may become presumption. We think we have an unchallengable right to pick and choose anything, and that right is what is right about freedom.
But it’s “all men” not “all choices” that are created equal. If you have men and women who are truly free, then obsession with choices is minimized by the desire for what is good alone.
Consider the dawning possibility of choosing among gene packages in embryonic stages. I intend to send her to the best schools, why not give her the best pre-birth advantage possible? (For one thing, she might end up being a he, if we get to choosing like that.)
Something called the St. Francis Life Continuation Sanctuaries is offering a new option to pet lovers. If you can’t imagine Fido or Kitty going the way of all flesh, you can preserve some cells of the good animal’s DNA. Then after pet passing (and once their scientists develop the next step in technology) you can replicate your pet with a new and improved model. Love means never having to say goodbye. You can choose to have your pet live forever! Sort of. (Wonder what St. Francis would think of his name being so used.)
If pets, why not persons? We can choose not to die! Eternal life without eternity. We can just keep shedding our skin like snakes and soft shell crabs.
That would be hell not heaven. Hell is where people live for themselves forever. They have become so skilled at choosing to prefer themselves over every other good, they have lost the capacity to choose to sacrifice for others out of love.
Heaven is the freedom to choose the good every time rather then the good to choose bad if we wish. Sometimes choosing the good involves giving up our lives for others.
Those who chose to die for country speak from the grave. One who chose to die for the world lives to speak still.
