The Value of a Life

I have a blogging friend who has a habit of posting on her blog every weekday and somtimes, but not obligately on the weekends. Sometimes it is long, but rarely. Usually she is concise, hilarious and talks about ONE thing at a time.

I can't imagine that.

When I start typing, I usually set in for the long haul and write a novella length post. But anyone can change, right? Well anyone can try to change.

So I am hereby going to TRY to post something every weekday. It is super busy around here these days, so it should be easy enough to put a little blurb on here each evening. Anyway, I am not promising, but I will try.

On Monday, I was talking with a coworker about religion, politics and abortion....HA! All of this within 10 minutes. She is Catholic, but does not agree with their abortion beliefs. Still she is very conservative and only would agree that an abortion was a good choice if it were in the case of rape, incest, life threatening for the mother or if it was a very young child. I didn't have time to say much, just listened to her and tried to hear where she was coming from. Then it was time to clock back in and concentrate on second graders.

That night, my two teenagers informed me that Tuesday, the following day, was "A Day of Silence" silent protest of abortion in our country. They were silent all day, except when they forgot and accidentally blurted out something and except when my 17 year old had to go to work. My 15 year old even went to a band competition night and did not talk! They made homemade t-shirts with slogans on them like, "I am silent today for those whose voice will never be heard." And they wore them to school.

My 17 yr old's government teacher was impressed that she was involved in a political movement. Neither of them had any negative comments. But several people said it was a 'cool' thing to do. And it is. I'm very proud of them both.

We all have our opinions. I do not begrudge my coworker for having a different one than me. She is an intelligent young woman and I could see that she had given it a lot of thought. I also really feel for those women who have had abortions. It leaves deep emotional scars and we should never shame them. Of the women that I personally know who have gone through it, not one of them has come through it without scars, without a deep regret and sense of loss. It is not a simple solution for a temporary inconvenience.

May we never lose the right to have our voices heard....or our silence felt.