Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/92471
6A Daily News – Thursday, November 8, 2012 Opinion Desperate to rationalize vs. hungry for reality DAILYNEWS RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U N T Y S I N C E 1 8 8 5 Greg Stevens, Publisher gstevens@redbluffdailynews.com Chip Thompson, Editor editor@redbluffdailynews.com Editorial policy The Daily News opinion is expressed in the editorial. The opinions expressed in columns, letters and cartoons are those of the authors and artists. Letter policy The Daily News welcomes let- ters from its readers on timely topics of public interest. All let- ters must be signed and pro- vide the writer's home street address and home phone num- ber. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and cannot exceed two double-spaced pages or 500 words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section of those submit- ted will be considered for publi- cation. Letters will be edited. 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How to reach us Main office: 527-2151 Classified: 527-2151 Circulation: 527-2151 News tips: 527-2153 Sports: 527-2153 Obituaries: 527-2151 Photo: 527-2153 On the Web www.redbluffdailynews.com Fax Newsroom: 527-9251 Classified: 527-5774 Retail Adv.: 527-5774 Legal Adv.: 527-5774 Business Office: 527-3719 Address 545 Diamond Ave. Red Bluff, CA 96080, or P.O. Box 220 Red Bluff, CA 96080 The pro-death community must be getting pretty desperate when it resorts to claiming it is safer to abort a pregnancy than to carry the child to term in order to rationalize the right to abort that child. Yes, I am aware that the same argument was a portion of what persuaded the Supreme Court in 1973. I do not have access to the data used forty years ago. But the newest published study – by Elizabeth Raymond and David Grimes – trots out the same argument and is – from a scientific standpoint – pathetic. It would be laughable were it not for the fifty-five mil- lion deaths that are its fruit. Raymond and Grimes base their conclusions on data from the federal Centers for Disease Control; they get their informa- tion from the self-reporting of abortion clinics themselves. The first problem is that the clinics are notorious for not reporting complications, let alone deaths from abortion, and this is too well documented to dispute. The second problem is that the study considers only deaths from first trimester abortions; it is also well documented that the later the abortion the higher (expo- nentially) the risk to the mother. Yet a third problem is that the study ignores the proven protec- tion of the pregnant mother from various non-pregnancy related causes of death ranging from breast cancer to suicide. It also ignores the higher risk of condi- tions ranging from potentially fatal systemic infections to vari- ous kinds of cancers to depres- sion and possible suicide follow- ing abortion. These conditions would come on after the mother left the clinic and would be piously ruled irrelevant by the apostles of so-called choice. The Raymond and Grimes study is taken apart by Patricia Coleman of Bowling Green University, and there is plenty of supporting material to be had by consulting Physicians for Life or The Christian Medical Dental Soci- ety. women facing a pregnancy out- side of the supportive atmos- phere of marriage and/or a lov- ing family are in a difficult situ- ation that offers no simple or easy solutions. People who love that woman need to stand by her, respect her choices, and actively help her whether she means to raise the child or permit the adoption option. The last thing she needs is a culture – ranging from family and friends to a leg- islature that now gives the legal green light to non-physicians to perform a procedure on human beings they would deny to any but a doctor if the family dog were concerned. But if we are desperate to rationalize our own need to quickly sanitize a dilem- The bottom line here is that ma we will stop at nothing – or so it appears. The same phenom- enon is playing out in left wing politics this week. I heard a cam- paign ad against a Florida congressman named Allen West this month. The voice – of a child, no less – asks why West thinks he should get to decide whether embryonic stem cell research can go forward when it holds such promise for curing every dis- ease from diabetes to leukemia. There is only one problem here, and that is that the commercial lies through its teeth. Oh, it is right when it says West opposes embryonic cell research. But there is exactly zero hope of this research leading to a cure for anything. Decades of experi- mentation have produced no results except a disturbing ten- dency of stimulated embryonic cells to mutate rather horribly. The same research in adult stem cells has led to more than one hundred treatments that are actually being used successfully. The last hold-out consideration was the claimed benefit that only embryonic stem cells could transform themselves into any kind of cell the body might need. That concern was laid to James Wilson rest recently when the two doc- tors who proved that variegation could be just as easily done with adult stem cells received the Nobel Prize in Medicine for proving their con- tentions. But again, the same kinds of minds and hearts that conned California taxpayers out of six billion dol- lars for embryonic stem cell research are desperate enough to hope the rest of us don't read the newspa- pers when they are rationalizing their rotted reasoning. The Bible is always on the side of life – big life and little life; complex life and simple life. It is packed full of com- mendable examples of beings who sacrifice their lives for the sake of another. But it never approves when we sacrifice oth- ers – against their will – for those we deem more important. And that word is not just com- patible with – it is the shaper of – whatever we can recognize as reality. James A.Wilson is the author of Living As Ambassadors of Relationships and The Holy Spirit and the End Times – available at local bookstores or by e-mailing him at Your officials STATE ASSEMBLYMAN — Jim Nielsen (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 6031 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 319-2002; Fax (916) 319-2102 STATE SENATOR — Doug LaMalfa (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 3070 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 651-4004; Fax (916) 445-7750 GOVERNOR — Jerry Brown, State Capitol Bldg., Sacramento, CA 95814; (916) 445-2841; Fax (916) 558-3160; E-mail: gover- nor@governor.ca.gov. U.S. REPRESENTATIVE — Wally Herger (R), 2595 Cean- othus Ave., Ste. 182, Chico, CA 95973; 893-8363. U.S.SENATORS — Dianne Feinstein (D), One Post Street, Suite 2450, San Francisco, CA 94104; (415) 393-0707. Fax (415) 393-0710. Barbara Boxer (D), 1700 Montgomery St., Suite 240, San Francisco, CA 94111; (510) 286-8537. Fax (202) 224- 0454. No, Virginia, the 2012 election's hyperpartisanship will not last Commentary "DEAR COLUMNIST: I am 13 years old and in the 8th grade. "Some of my friends say America will never be able to put back together after the highly divi- sive Presidential election and that due to hyperpartisanship people will never work together to solve our problems. They say it's getting almost impossible. Papa says if you hear people say it on TV, in newspapers and on blogs then it must be so. Please tell me the truth: can America truly get together after this election? Can there ever be a change that takes place that could move our country towards real problem-solving, or is this as "good" as it can get? "Virginia Genericperson "285 Quintessential Ave., Any the tone of our political culture where rudeness, boorishness and aggressiveness are perceived by some as being intelligent. Our political culture has shifted, but just as things shift, they can re- shift -- and it is in the power of you and other young people to do it. City, USA" Virginia, your friends are wrong. As someone who writes this column, loved political sci- ence at Colgate, monitors political shows on radio and TV, and who spends hours surfing the internet to edit and write my centrist blog The Moderate Voice, I know how easy it is to get swept up by the early 21st century's rages, pas- sions and melodrama. You and your friends are pick- ing up the fact that our politics no longer resemble the kind of poli- tics that made America great -- where consensus and compromise were virtues and where politicians perhaps begrudgingly acknowl- edged the importance of truth and could not blatantly and intention- ally ignore it. You're picking up on Go back into American history and you'll find many examples of times when compromise -- two principled parties or politicians giving a little, then taking a little to come up with something for the common good that's supported by more than a power-play faction of people -- was a virtue. Legislator and former Secretary of State Henry Clay, Sr. (April 12, 1777 — June 29, 1852) was even called "The Great Compromiser" for his role in the 1820 Missouri Com- promise. Partisans known for compromise today face primaries and are replaced by hyperparti- sans. eschew the notion that real politi- cal nirvana is when a policy gar- ners the maximum number of populace's participants to buy into it. filled with figures that cherished the idea of consensus, even while assertively promoting strong ideological ideals: Abraham Lin- coln, Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, JFK, LBJ and many more. Gil Troy, in his superb book, "Leading from the Center: Why Moderates Make the Best Presidents," classi- fies Ronald Reagan as a "moderate" because he success- fully used compromise and con- sensus. American history is You see, Virginia, much of American political culture is now set up to define compromise as a "caving" or weakness, and con- sensus as being in the inaccurate- ly defined "mushy middle." It showers those who are the loud- est, most outrageous, and most insulting with attention and rich- es. Some of today's leaders in both parties do seek compromise and cooperation (note New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and President Barack Obama during Hurricane Sandy) and some may seek con- sensus, but there are forces that Joe Gandelman Independent's Eye Strong work to sandbag com- promise and consensus. Ideologi- cal movements that demonize opponents and seek to shrink once-big political tents. Corpora- tions selling and broadcasting popular talk shows and cable shows that rake in big bucks by harnessing, communicating, and enlarging resentment and anger to build audience share that's then sold to advertisers. The ideologi- cal cable channels increasingly celebrate political incivility. Still, there courageous politi- cians and media types and Ameri- ca has a strong center. Many young people in their teens and 20s that I talked to and emailed these past two years make it clear they look with revulsion on hyperpartisanship, and the verbal and written screaming and insulting associated with it. Many wish there was a strong third party movement. The fact you and oth- ers ask this question means you may -- and can -- make it different. Other generations made it different in positive (the Greatest Genera- tion) and negative (Baby Boomers) ways. Your generation can do it in a positive way again. Joe Gandelman is a veteran journalist who wrote for newspapers overseas and in the United States. He has appeared on cable news show political panels and is Editor-in-Chief of The Moderate Voice, an Internet hub for independents, centrists and moderates. CNN's John Avlon named him as one of the top 25 Centrists Columnists and Commentators. He can be reached at jgandelman@themoderatevoice. com and can be booked to speak at your event at www.mavenproductions.com.You can follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/joegandelman