6-27-22<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Certain events in my life have caused me to dread headlines \u2013 not every day; and for years as a newspaperman it was my business to write headlines \u2013 but we all have been conditioned to expect surprises. Weather, wars, assassinations, disasters. I was just beginning a new job in San Diego, living amidst boxes in my new home, when the TV showed the breaking news of what we now call 9-11.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That I knew that Manhattan neighborhood well, and had been to the top of the Towers, added but little to the shock. Even today, almost every time I turn on the TV news in the morning, I wonder whether a similar headline will confront me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a similar way, and not only as a student of history, there are events that I would happily anticipate as headlines \u2013 hopes and dreams that might be fulfilled some day. Usually these thoughts are futile. But sometimes they happen: dreams do come true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was astonished, for instance, that \u201cthe Wall fell,\u201d and Communist governments not only collapsed across Europe \u2013 one after the other, like dominoes \u2013 but that hardly a drop of blood was shed! Oh, maybe someone hurt themselves as the Berlin Wall was razed; and excepting the Romanian thug Nicolae Ceau\u015fescu and his immediate family there were no fatalities, either by regimes\u2019 defenses or by freedom fighters. (Strangely, in college I briefly had dated the daughter of the government minister who fleetingly tried to assume power in the dictator\u2019s wake.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My point is that a headline, \u201cCommunist Governments Overthrown, Bloodlessly; Democracy and Capitalism Come to Europe,\u201d was one I never expected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A similar headline \u2013 \u201cRoe vs Wade Overturned and Invalidated by Supreme Court\u201d \u2013 is one I dreamed of for half a century, and simply never believed would happen. Indeed as with the subsequent \u201cCasey\u201d ruling, I was certain that America would continue down (!) the path of disrespecting and dismantling our cultural heritage. Declining. What I have called \u201cThe Culture of Death.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My friends know that in the days of \u201cRoe,\u201d those almost nihilistic times, I was untroubled by the idea of abortion\u2026 unpersuaded by opposing arguments\u2026 and approving of its legalization. Those views and actions are never merely abstract in debates and events; when you choose sides in such matters you become a complicit enabler. There are few things from which I have reformed that have caused such bitter tears and prayers for forgiveness. So I became an activist on the \u201cpro-life\u201d side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2026 and therefore I was, frankly, astonished to learn that Roe vs Wade has been overturned. And without violence or bloodshed (except, that is, for the 63-million babies that have been killed since the Court decided it).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Growing from my concern and activism, in 2005 I managed to secure a magazine interview with Norma McCorvey, the \u201canonymous\u201d Jane Roe (a female \u201cJohn Doe\u201d) of the landmark case. She was famously reclusive and granted few interviews. Her own baby (of the case\u2019s focus) in fact never was aborted, but was given for adoption. After her \u201cwin,\u201d she worked in abortion clinics… was disgusted by what she witnessed\u2026 became a Christian\u2026 and then worked to counsel other women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That interview will soon appear in a national magazine, and I will share it here, too, in coming weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But let us not celebrate too soon or too enthusiastically. Just as Communist governments fell, but Communism lives on \u2013 in other governments; in academia; in the media; in \u201cprogressive\u201d politics \u2013 so abortion will continue. Sobering facts to realize and remember:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is another point that might not be appreciated going forward\u2026 but it is a lesson in democracy. For all the tumult and shouting about guns and abortions, and about election frauds and discredited stories about Russian collusion, \u201cimpossible\u201d dreams do come true. Communist dictatorships did<\/em> collapse. The guarantee of self-defense according to the Second Amendment finally seems secure. And contrary to social drift in America, and standards in other countries (our abortion policies are generally more<\/em> permissive than dozens of other countries\u2019 around the world)\u2026 we are in fact reading headlines that bring hope on the issue of infanticide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other battles remain to confront us: crime; abuse; drugs; the breakdown of the family; education reform\u2026 but we can sense redemption from pessimism!<\/p>\n\n\n\n And perhaps the most unlikely surprise among startling news is the \u201cvessel\u201d who successfully carried water on these issues. The Bible has many examples of unlikely or unknown or untested people who God used to exercise His will. In a future generation, Americans will read in history books, not only newspapers, the headline: \u201cOrange Man Good.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n + + +<\/p>\n\n\n\n