Are You Pro-Life? "Yes!" or "No!"

Something to think about:

One of the issues that has been getting in the way of getting the new health bill passed has been the allowance of federal funding for abortion.

This says to me that those who have protested this bill on those grounds would answer "Yes!" to the question "Are you pro-life?"

I challenge you to continue to be pro-life, even when the lives you are protecting have gone from being under an inch in all directions and fitting inside of other humans to when those lives are over three feet tall and one foot wide at the widest parts of their bodies and are growing up experiencing homes, neighborhoods, and/or schools that lead them to think that it's better to live out in the elements than to remain in the status quo.

How can we help those young people once they have hit the streets?  Ignoring them and hoping that they will go away won't cut it.

How can we help their lives to become better in the first place so that they won't end up choosing to leave?

You've got to remain as pro-life from cradle to grave as you are from womb life to birth!

For those of you who don't see viable life as necessarily beginning at conception, you still can't ignore the fact that not only is that resident of a woman's womb (once he/she can be seen sucking his/her thumb and, in other ways, being a growing baby) very real and worthy of respect (to only be aborted to save the life of the woman carrying him/her) but that he/she is an individual to whom we must commit to provide the basics of life from cradle to grave.

While "basics" don't necessarily include a $50,000 per year pay check, a mansion, a fancy car, a yacht, a time-share, automatic admission to an Ivy League college, designer clothing, and elective surgery (e.g. breast implants, nose-jobs), they do include decent food, clothing, shelter, health care, and education--AND the right to feel safe and respected while going to school instead of having their cries for help re: bullying/taunting ignored.

Please sign this petition to end youth homelessness NOW!!

Let's Make Being Judgmental OUT Instead Of IN

Below, find three of my favorite episodes of The Twilight Zone that deal in one way or another with being too quick to pass judgment on others instead of taking the time to understand them.

The first episode involves judging people due to their outward appearance.  Our homeless youth have often run away from situations where they are bullied over everything from outward appearance to their beliefs.

Final note about this episode:  Actually, the people in the first episode were very compassionate toward their grotesquely-deformed patient.  But could they have gone a little farther and questioned why this person had to be separated from the rest of mainstream society just because she hadn't been blessed with good looks like they had?  How about us?  Do we try to change what needs to be changed or just take the easy route and allow things to remain status quo?

The next episode has to do with a mad scientist who has set up some kind of invention to weed out all of the "evil" people in the world.  He will end up being very surprised when his machine is put into action.

The final episode has to do with persecuting somebody who is different instead of taking the time to find out what they're all about.  A community learns (too late) a very important lesson when they take the former route instead of the latter.

Too often, our homeless youth get judged by people who haven't walked a mile in their shoes and don't know where they're coming from.  Will you take a different route than the one that gets taken too often?