History Was Made

Only two things in mind:

2) First off, I've blogged so much about the presidential election and about President Obama, yet I've haven't said anything about him actually being the president. I really don't have a lot to say about it, but I will say this:

It's been a historical day for this country.

If you didn't catch his inaugural speech, here's the video.



I also suggest listening to the news about the first one-hundred days. It's usually a good indicator as to how the administration will be and what their priorities are for the next four years.

1) If you are a major Facebook junkie, like I am, then you might have seen the event called "Novena to stop FOCA". A representative from the USCCB had responded to the event here. The gist of the CNA article indicated that there were inaccurate information posted on the event's description. Even though most of the information had been corrected during the event's activity, the USCCB response made a great point that FOCA was controversial enough to not make up facts or even coerce people into opposing the bill. FOCA will not directly force medical centers, including Catholic hospitals, from performing actual abortions, therefore forcing the US bishops to shut all of them down. However, according to the bill, FOCA will force the federal, state, and local governments from denying public funding to those how don't perform abortions, which definitely does include these Catholic hospitals. Considering the high cost of health care, this reason alone would potentially limit funding for these Catholic hopitals or even force the closure of some of them. Also, FOCA has not yet even been on Congress' schedule. Even though I do expect FOCA to be debated on the committees this year, it's a bit of an overstatement that these "left-wing dogs" would create an abortion free-for-all in the first few days of the Obama administration.

It leaves me one point of thought of whether the pro-life movement is actually serious about actually attempting to make their policies and ideas work in the US. Perhaps it was an honest mistake of the facts regarding FOCA. On the other hand, perhaps it was also an intentional move to scare people into the novena. To be frank, while I do believe that the actual novena was a great idea, I and many other Catholics don't need to be scared into being serious about our faith, much less being intentionally coerced into praying and opposing FOCA. It's simply a very controversial bill and a definite wrong move for this country. I can even think of two reasons as to why FOCA is wrong without even putting a religious twist to it. First, FOCA further limits the power of the state and local governments to decide what is best for their community. Also, the funding cuts alone would endanger the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans that depend on the health care from Catholic hospitals, and I'm sure that unlike the unborn, there can be no debate that these are actual LIVING Americans who will be negatively affected by FOCA. In other words, do the ends really justify the means?

Consequently, these false facts and further inflammatory statements like FOCA will possibly bring us closer to limiting the number of children a family can have or even force mothers to abort their babies that have Down's Syndrome (Read the comments on the Facebook event and the CNA article.) does not strengthen the pro-life movement but further weaken it. Lies will always taint or even destroy whole ideas and principles, and we should not rely on them. Even so, if this is what they will rely on to make a pro-life America, then I don't think anyone in this movement is serious about making it happen, much more will America even support pro-life polcies at all. I have to further question if an actual pro-life America that will work is the goal of these people, or are they just supporting and showboating this for their own individual souls? I have said this before, and I will say it again, but the pro-life movement definitely needs to re-examine their intentions and their arguments to make their ideas work in this country instead of just shoving damning remarks and false statements down our throats. I still believe that there are very viable arguments out there as to why abortions should be limited or even why abortions should be banned in the US with the addition of the proper policies in social welfare in place.

The argument of abortion in the US needs to be a mature one, and maturity does include being able to make reasonable and truthful arguments, either for or against it. Furthermore, as Catholics, while we do need to be sympathetic and understanding to those potential mothers, I do believe that we do need to always support life, both those that are unborn and those that still walk the Earth.

Perhaps it is appropriate to reaffirm our commitment to life today considering that this was when Roe v. Wade was decided by the Supreme Court in 1973.

If you want to actually read what was stated in the proposed FOCA bill last year, read it here.

That is all.