Frank Weathers is a regular read over at Why I Am Catholic.
He's a former Marine, a funny guy, a convert to Catholicism and has helped me numerous times as I've looked to deepen my attachment and commitment to the Catholic faith.
His pieces are relevant and informative, shedding much needed light for me on topics I frankly have known next to nothing about.
And he's done so again.
Whenever I've heard the word eugenics, I've thought of the horrors and the atrocities committed on the unwilling by the Nazis during WWII. But thanks to Frank, I've learned that in fact, the practice of eugenics wasn't just limited to the sick thinking of National Socialists in power in Germany in the 1940s:
It is the part of our national history that is left out of the textbooks, and it’s the first time I had ever heard of sterilizations forced by the state on American citizens. I’m such a virgin in that way. Sheltered, gullible, simple, and childlike, it never occurred to me that things of this nature occurred in Uncle Sam’s paradise. Nazi Germany? Sure.Singapore? Sure. But North Carolina, right next door to me? Say it ain’t so.
It was so as he documents at his place. Do read the entire piece and become informed.
I continue to believe, despite numerous and clear cut failings, that America and Americans have long been the hope and the light of nations, a hope and light sourced in faith in God and the pursuit of His will. No one however can claim today that this hope and this light aren't being jeopardized by a culture increasingly embracing not a new mindset or philosophy but actually, one that most of us had perhaps thought had been buried in the ash heap of history.
Which brings me to the title of my post. Obama's campaign slogan of Forward might be appealing to those ignorant of history, those who've failed to learn and apply the lessons that history teaches. To the rest of us however, as so much of what Obama says and stands for, Forward has little to do with progressing toward some utopian state.
Frank makes the point much better than I:
Am I alone in thinking that this historical information is relevant in light of the HHS Mandate and the push for “preventative services” that include sterilizations, birth-control pills, and abortions to all, regardless of whether some, such as the Catholic Church, and her allied hospitals and colleges, and Catholics in their own right, object to these practices? You may argue that the government isn’t forcing sterilizations on anyone through the Mandate, but only making sure that folks can be sterilized if they want to be. But how is that freedom if the practice is clearly sinful as determined by the Church in this case, and by Catholics who wish to be loyal to her teachings? How is this new level of coercion by the Federal government any less ham-handed than what is being described in Professor Stern’s paper above?
Seriously folks, read Frank's entire piece.
There's tons at stake.
Forward isn't forward at all. It's terribly, horrifically, backwards.
In the 1930s, 'Medical Science' in these here United States was using human beings as guinea pigs; my mother was one so used.
Posted by: Ilíon | Saturday, August 18, 2012 at 07:18 PM