Some thoughts on abortion

There is a difference between law and morality.  Law deals with efficient, practical ways of ordering society.  Morality deals with good and bad.  In the extreme, law is arbitrary.  We go on green and stop on red.  It could just as easily have been the reverse.  In the extreme, morality is absolute.  It is wrong to reject God.  Other times there is an overlap of law and morality.  It is both illegal and immoral to murder or steal. 

Under our system of democracy, in order to preserve its integrity, law must be totally separate from morality.  This allows for the practice and development of all moral systems.  Strict adherence to this distinction is critical.

Without resorting to morality or religion, there is a viable argument for making human abortion illegal in many circumstances.  The law protects us and our property so that we as individuals do not have to do so ourselves.  Even the physically weakest person in society is protected the same as the strongest. 

There is no one in society that is weaker than the fetus.  Its very survival depends upon the good graces of another.  The question is whether or not we should extend the protection of society to this our weakest member.  The answer is clearly no, if and only if the fetus is not human.

It if is not human, then what is it?  There is no question that it is some yet unfulfilled potential.  But is this enough to make it human?  The answer must be an unequivocal yes.  Throughout our entire lives, as we grow, change and age; we are all some yet unfulfilled potential.  There is no reason to distinguish the unborn.

While the fetus depends upon the mother for its existence, this is not without some effect upon the mother.  This can range along the continuum from discomfort to death.  In the extreme, the choice between the life of the fetus and the death of the mother becomes clear.  The actual life of a living human being must be favored over the potential life of the fetus. 

After this the choices become more difficult.  Indeed selecting the chooser is the first hurdle.  Is it the mother, the father, the doctor or society that makes the life and death decision for the fetus and the life altering decision for the mother?  Remember the decision from a legal perspective is not a matter of right or wrong.  Rather it is a matter of the efficient practical ordering of society, always remembering the purpose of law in society is to protect those who cannot do so themselves.

It seems clear that the law needs to protect the fetus in all situations except when it causes the death of the mother.  This may seem harsh in the case of rape or incest, but from the fetus point of view, it matters not how or why it was conceived.  Once the fetus has become emancipated from the mother, and particularly when its life has been dictated by the law, the mother should not be compelled to raise the child.  Society, having protected the life must take responsibility for it until it can fend for itself.

The potential humanity of the fetus must have precedence over the convenience of the mother.  The individual steps between the convenience of the mother and the death of the mother must be decided on a case by case basis, always with an emphasis of protecting what cannot protect itself.  (Parenthetically this same reasoning can be applied to assisted suicide and euthanasia.  But that discussion is for another day.)  

Of course, the law cannot restrict a person's moral or religious belief regarding abortion.  They are matters of faith and conscience and as long as acting on them does not conflict with law the are as they should be protected.

A real master mason

Brother Gerald R. Ford

Gerald R. Ford was in Congress for 25 years and from 1965 to 1973, he was House Minority Leader. He was born in 1913 and grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He starred on the University of Michigan football team, and went to Yale, where he worked as assistant football coach while earning his law degree. During World War II he rose to lieutenant commander in the Navy. After the war he returned to Grand Rapids, where he began the practice of law, and entered politics.

Brother Ford was initiated on September 30, 1949, Malta Lodge No. 465, Grand Rapids, Michigan.  The Fellowcraft and Master Mason Degrees were conferred by Columbia Lodge No. 3, Washington, D.C., on April 20 and May 18, 1951 because Brother Ford was a member of Congress and spent much of his time in Washington.  He was made a Sovereign Grand Inspector General, 33°, and Honorary Member, Supreme Council A.A.S.R. Northern Jurisdiction at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, in 1962.  Brother and President Ford was unanimously elected an Active Member of the International Supreme Council, Order of DeMolay and its Honorary Grand Master in 1975. Brother Ford held this post until 1977.

But to really understand a man, we must see him in the context of what was going on around him during his finest hour. 

It was October 10, 1973 and Spiro T. Agnew, the vice president of the United States had just resigned after pleading nolo contendere to bribery and tax evasion charges for acts that occurred while he was governor of Maryland.  Still fresh in the public mind were the Kennedy assassinations, the Martin Luther King assassination, race riots, the carnage of the Viet Nam war, the war protests and the killing of students at Kent State by the National Guard. The economy was in recession and lines at gas stations reflected an energy crisis the likes of which this country has never seen. The Senate public televised, hearings on Watergate, which began in May and recessed in August, had been postponed to February 1974.  To many it seamed like the country was being torn apart.

In the mist of all this strife and dissention, President Nixon chose Gerald R. Ford to be a heart beat away. He could have hardly imagined the chain of events called Watergate that would lead to his own resignation (the first and only president to do so) and the ascension to power of the only president never chosen in a national election. On August 9, 1974, Gerald R. Ford took the oath of office of President of the United States, and said; "I assume the Presidency under extraordinary circumstances.... This is an hour of history that troubles our minds and hurts our hearts.”  Thankfully, when his country called, Brother Gerald R. Ford answered.

            President Ford was in every sense a peacemaker.  Early in his first and only term, he issued a total pardon to former President Nixon.  As he said at the time and repeated 30 years later, it was a practical solution to start the national healing and allow the government to get on with the business of the people of the United States.  And he did just that, using his veto power some 68 times. He would later say that he did so for the good of all the people, not just any particular constituency.  Most of the vetoes were upheld, even by a congress dominated by the opposite party.

He probably lost the ensuing election because he did what he believed was right and best for our country.  . "I have to say that most of my staff disagreed with me over the pardon," Ford commented. "But I was absolutely convinced that it was the right thing to do."  His principle and sense of right was more important than his personal political expediency. 

"My greatest disappointment was that I couldn't turn the switch and all of a sudden overnight go from an economic recession to an economic prosperity," Ford remembered. "That was the greatest disappointment domestically." Ford's greatest success as President was in conducting government, decently administered by responsible people.  He said,  "I hope historians will write that the Ford administration healed the land, that I restored public confidence in the White House and in the government."

After former president Nixon left for the last time, President Ford recollected; “I had of course almost immediately the responsibility of going into the East Room, where I had to be sworn in and where I had to make an acceptance speech. And I couldn't prepare my speech until twenty-four hours or less beforehand, because up until the last minute we weren't sure what President Nixon was going to do. And I had a wonderful speechwriter, Bob Hartman, and he handed me the copy and I read it. He had a knack of saying what I would say. It came to one sentence. I said, 'Bob, we ought to strike this.' And it was the sentence, 'Our long national nightmare is over.' And Bob Hartman said to me, 'If you strike that, I'm quitting!' So I left it in and it turned out to be the most memorable line in my remarks-and it was a wonderful line."

Two other quotes pointedly reveal the man and the Masonic lessons he knew so well.

“As we bind up the internal wounds of Watergate, more painful and more poisonous than those of foreign wars, let us restore the golden rule to our political process, and let brotherly love purge our hearts of suspicion and of hate. “

“My conscience tells me clearly and certainly that I cannot prolong the bad dreams that continue to reopen a chapter that is closed. My conscience tells me that only I, as President, have the constitutional power to firmly shut and seal this book. My conscience tells me it is my duty, not merely to proclaim domestic tranquility but to use every means that I have to insure it. I do believe that the buck stops here, that I cannot rely upon public opinion polls to tell me what is right. I do believe that right makes might and that if I am wrong, 10 angels swearing I was right would make no difference. I do believe, with all my heart and mind and spirit, that I, not as President but as a humble servant of God, will receive justice without mercy if I fail to show mercy. “

Rest in peace Brother Gerald R. Ford, 38^th President of the United States, Master Mason.  So mote it be.

A poet for all ages

                            If

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or being hated, don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream -- and not make dreams your master;

If you can think -- and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two imposters just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with kings -- nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run --

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And -- which is more -- you'll be a Man, my son!

Rudyard Kipling's (1865-1936) inspirational poem 'If' first appeared in his collection 'Rewards and Fairies' in 1909. The poem 'If' is inspirational, motivational, and a set of rules for 'grown-up' living. Kipling's 'If' contains mottos and maxims for life, and the poem is also a blueprint for personal integrity, behaviour and self-development. 'If' is perhaps even more relevant today than when Kipling wrote it, as an ethos and a personal philosophy.
The beauty and elegance of 'If' contrasts starkly with Rudyard Kipling's largely tragic and unhappy life. He was starved of love and attention and sent away by his parents; beaten and abused by his foster mother; and a failure at a public school which sought to develop qualities that were completely alien to Kipling. In later life the deaths of two of his children also affected Kipling deeply.

Rudyard Kipling, (1865-1936), English short-story writer, novelist and poet, remembered for his celebration of British imperialism and heroism in India and Burma.

Kipling was the first Englishman to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature (1907). His most popular works include The Jungle Book (1894) and the Just So Stories (1902), both children's classics though they have attracted adult audiences also.

Rudyard Kipling was born on December 30, 1865, in Bombay, India, where his father was an arts and crafts teacher at the Jeejeebhoy School of Art. At the age of six he was taken to England by his parents and left for five years at a foster home at Southsea. His unhappiness at the unkind treatment he received was later expressed in the short story "Baa Baa, Black Sheep", in the novel The Light That Failed (1890), and in his autobiography (1937).

Kipling returned to India in 1882, where he worked as a journalist in Lahore for the Civil and Military Gazette (1882-87) and as an assistant editor and overseas correspondent in Allahabad for the Pioneer (1887-89).

Kipling's short stories and verses gained success in the late 1880s in England, to which he returned in 1889, and was hailed as a literary heir to Charles Dickens. Between the years 1889 and 1892, Kipling lived in London and published Life's Handicap (1891), a collection of Indian stories and Barrack-Room Ballads, a collection of poems that included "Gunga Din".

1892 Kipling married Caroline Starr Balestier, with whom he collaborated on a novel, The Naulakha(1892). The young couple moved to the United States. Kipling was dissatisfied with the life in Vermont, and after the death of his daughter, he took his family back to England and settled in Burwash, Sussex. Kipling's marriage was not in all respects happy. During these restless years Kipling produced Many Inventions (1893), The Jungle Book (1894), The Second Jungle Book (1895), The Seven Seas (1896) and Captains Courageous(1897)

 

In 1975 the John Huston film with Sean Connery as Daniel Dravot; Michael Caine as Peachy Carnehan and Christopher Plummer as Rudyard Kipling.  Called by some as the greatest “buddy film” ever made

A fairly accurate movie from the short story by Rudyard Kipling, collected in Plain Tales from the Hills in 1888. Narrated by a British journalist in India, it is about a pair of comic adventurers who briefly establish themselves as godlike leaders of a native tribe in a country resembling Afghanistan. Exploring the nature of friendship and British imperialism, the story examines the differences between experiences felt and experiences described, ambition and achievement, and reality and fiction.

Personal statement

I prepared the following personal statement for my Marine Corps Basic School Class reunion several years ago.  The Commandant, classmate Jim Conway; instructor, Medal of Honor recipient Wes Fox and classmate Emilio Garza Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit were in attendance with about 150 of us former Marines.  I believe this statement is a good description of who I am.

After TBS, it was Naval Justice School in Newport Rhode Island and then off to Parris Island, the best kept secret in the Marine Corps, for the next two years plus as a Judge Advocate.  It was a great tour where I learned much more than I gave.  The Commanding General at the time, Robert Barrow, later went on to become Commandant, certainly in spite of his limited contact with me.

            In January 1974, I went to work in the Special Operations Section of the U. S Department of Justice, Organized and Racketeering Division in Washington, D. C.  After a few months it was off to the Philadelphia Strike Force.  For four years in the Philadelphia Strike Force and two with the Newark New Jersey Strike Force in South Jersey it was Grand Juries, wire taps, bugs, informants and prosecutions, all from the Government side. 

            When the bureaucracy became too intense (January 1980), it was time for a change, so out went my shingle.  I tried most areas in the practice of law and by process of elimination became, after several years, almost exclusively, a criminal defense lawyer.  I quickly found that it was all the same things as when I was a prosecutor;  Grand Juries, wire taps, bugs, informants and prosecutions, but now from the other side and no bureaucracy.  I like to think I help make the criminal justice system work as it was designed.

            The next 28 years were full of good times and some lean ones.  Work could have often been described as boredom punctuated by panic.  Along the way I acquired; a variety of animal shelter dogs and cats, Harley Davidson riding, scuba diving, some traveling and a deep regard for Freemasonry.  Always paramount in my life was and is the wonderful family that I am fortunate to have.  Rita was with me from the beginning in 1970 and for reasons I will never fully understand, she is still by my side.  As the children grew, so did her career.  From stringer reporter to political editor to Press Secretary for Governor Christie Whitman to Director of Communications for the Department of Health and Senior Services; she has always kept me level.  She has truly been my rock.  She now has her own Public Relations Consulting business.

            We have been blessed with two daughters who have far exceeded anything I could ever accomplish.  The oldest, Kimberly is a graduate of the University of Virginia where she was President of the student body.  She has an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a MPP from the Kennedy School of Government.  Presently living in Bogota, Columbia with her husband, a career foreign service officer, they will be soon relocating to the D. C. area where she will be the Director of a group with the International Development Bank.  They have two wonderful daughters, Cecilia who is two and a half and Aliza who is one.   They are their grandparents’ great joy.

            Our youngest daughter Rebecca, an M.D. in Baltimore, is in the middle of a Fellowship in Rheumatology at Johns Hopkins.  She will also soon be receiving a Masters Degree in Health Science.  Becca and her husband, Nick, a manufacturer’s representative for commercial surveillance cameras and other electronic devices, balance an extremely busy life style with travel and family.

Fortune cookie philosophy

In an era of fortune cookie philosophy when instant gratification is too slow, is it any wonder that we no longer read or study or meditate or think?  We take a cute phrase and make it into words to live by.  Always looking for the quick, the easy, the simple, we leave our thinking to others and blindly accept what they say; the more clever the more profound we perceive it to be.  Simple and complex have become reversed and the complicated has become irrelevant.  The quick fix, miracle drug and easy thought have replaced hard work, study and reasoning.  We blurt out sound bites for our own satisfaction without ever intending to listen while a true exchange of ideas gets further and further away. 

Humans are distinguished from the lower forms of life, first and foremost by our ability to communicate.  Without this ability, we can never know if the other is thinking and if so on what level.  Uncommunicated affection may as well not exist.  Stones and trees cannot in any way communicate and hence we can never know if they have any thought or consciousness.  Animals communicate in varying degree.  Some are able to show affection, joy, sorrow and other human emotions.  Some even are able to show a rudimentary reasoning ability.  It is only the human who has the potential to communicate on a higher level and demonstrate a wide range of reasoning and thought.   And yet, so often we give it up for the expedient.

When we abandon our communication and reasoning skills we are giving up some of that which makes us human.  It is not just for the academician or the monk to think and reason.  It is for all of us, individually and collectively.  Thinking critically and communicating carefully; that is the stuff that our humanity is made of.