The Cuomo excuse

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" height=110 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Commonwealth Commentary Newsletter"><U><B><IMG SRC="18672320.jpg" border=0 width="114" height="50" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#0066FF" FACE="Arial" ><B>Commonwealth Commentary Newsletter</B></FONT><B>          </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Commonwealth Commentary Newsletter"><U><B> home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="ccn_writer___j__dori_callahan.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="J. Dori Callahan"><U><B>J. Dori Callahan</B></U></A><B>   ·   </B><A HREF="biography_of__william_e__nowers.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="William E. Nowers"><U><B>William E. Nowers</B></U></A><B>   ·   </B><A HREF="biography_of_j__michael_sharman.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="J. Michael Sharman"><U><B>J. Michael Sharman</B></U></A><B>   ·   </B><A HREF="biography_of_michael_h__smith.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Michael H. Smith"><U><B>Michael H. Smith</B></U></A><B>   ·   </B><A HREF="biography_of_carolyn_wray.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Carolyn Wray"><U><B>Carolyn Wray</B></U></A></div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=370 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <A HREF="biography_of_michael_h__smith.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Michael H. Smith"><U><IMG SRC="131748a0.jpg" border=0 width="116" height="138" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A>   <A HREF="biography_of_michael_h__smith.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Michael H. Smith"><U><B>Michael H. Smith</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> The Cuomo excuse</div> <bR> <div> S<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Verdana" >ome people take  the "Cuomo excuse" on abortion, the invented doctrine of the has-been New York democrat politician Mario Cuomo, who tries to reconcile his Catholic Christian faith with his view of the radical separation doctrine dominant in American politics today</FONT></div> <bR> <div> "I find abortion to be horrible" some have said.  "I could personally never do it, but I have no right to tell anyone else that she cannot do it."</div> <bR> <div> In other words, the power of society cannot be used to protect innocent and defenseless human life against the greed and impatience of other more powerful human life.</div> <bR> <div> Some would do their best to talk an expectant mother out of abortion, but affirm  Mario Cuomo's doctrine that no one has the "right" to prevent a mother from killing her unborn baby.  In fact, if I heard  right, some have even extended the Roman principle of "paterfamilias" to the period shortly after birth if it is determined that the child is "defective."</div> <bR> <div> Apparently, the freedom of some human life, parents, is on a higher plane than that of other human life, helpless children.  This is  a logically contradictory position, unless one pretends that the unborn - and newly born - are not really people but only "things."</div> <bR> <div> Or, in other words, human life begins only when I want my child.</div> <bR> <div> Either we are all persons or we are not.  If we are all joined by this one </div> <div> characteristic, that spans all differences of age and sex, race and </div> <div> nationality, wealth and poverty, health and sickness, then for anyone of us to announce the "unpersonhood" of another is not individual freedom, it is unfreedom.</div> <bR> <div> Why is this important?  Because the two men who were vying for the White House represent radically different views on the value and protection of human life.</div> <bR> <div> Vice President Al Gore, as a democrat, feels that human beings are only useful tools, stairsteps to his own power.  Bush recognizes the intrinsic value of human life, the creativity, goodness, and need for freedom of real human beings.</div> <bR> <div> I ask you to pray for Bush to be inaugurated and to lead this country out of the culture of death. Until then we have a hole in our soul that needs to be healed.</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <A HREF="biography_of_michael_h__smith.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Michael H. Smith"><U><I>Michael H. Smith</I></U></A></div> <bR> <div> December 2000</div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id21.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="More from Michael H. Smith"><U>More from Michael H. Smith</U></A></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id106.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="July Issue"><U><B>July Issue</B></U></A><B>   ·   </B><A HREF="ccn_back_issues.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Archives"><U><B>Archives</B></U></A><B>   ·   </B><A HREF="ccn_writers.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Our Writers"><U><B>Our Writers</B></U></A><B>   ·   </B><A HREF="ccn_subscription_page.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Subscriptions"><U><B>Subscriptions</B></U></A><B>   ·   </B><A HREF="ccn_site_map.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Site Map"><U><B>Site Map</B></U></A><B>   ·   </B><A HREF="ccn_contact_information.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contact Us"><U><B>Contact Us</B></U></A><B>   ·   </B><A HREF="ccn_links_page.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Links"><U><B>Links</B></U></A></div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>