More Observations

Another day and more construction done. This is the larger plot of land being worked across the street from the smaller I photographed yesterday. Notice all that rich dark soil? That soil is dark and rich because that land was wetlands before they tore down all the small cypress and willow trees that grew there and dug it all up. All that lighter soil was hauled in to be spread over the darker. By the time it's all done there'll be more buildings and parking lots over another piece of Florida paradise.

Once again the First Baptist Church of Orlando has put up their "Cemetery of Innocence" in the big field that sits between the church and L.B. McLeod. They've put this up in time for yet another pre-Easter first amendment expression of their disapproval of abortion. According to the sign out in front this year, 4,000 babies are being aborted "daily."

Since I'm a raging liberal, I immediately felt the number was suspect. So I went out and used the evil Google to look for statistics I felt were more believable, and found the CDC's "Abortion Surveillance --- United States, 2008" report. According to the CDC's report the total number of U.S. abortions reported in 2008 were 825,564, or 2,262 abortions/day, a little more than half the 4,000 painted on the sign. I doubt that that abortion rate has doubled over the last four years.

But let's not quibble over the numbers. The fact that there are this many abortions points to a lack of accessible birth control, especially for young teenage women. If you read the report you'll find that the greatest majority of abortions occurred with women 19 years or younger. Young women who's lives and the lives of any children they would carry to term would be ruined because they've got no good financial backing for either themselves or their unborn children. You can't abort them, but once they're all here, well, that's not the right's concern any more. After all, if they grow up and become a problem, well, that's what prisons are for, isn't it?

When I see crosses like that, especially on a day like today, I think instead of all the Syrians that have died at the hand of Bashar al-Assad, who has been widening and intensifying his deadly assault on Syrian citizens who are against his rule, especially in Homs. I've been listening and reading about the death of journalist Marie Colvin, who died exposing the horrors of that particular war. She was reporting on the death of one child (of many) when she died during a shell attack on Homs by Syrian government forces. These are the innocents who have also died, young men with their hands tied and bullet wounds to their heads and chests, lying in the streets, women, and children as well. Where are the local signs expressing outrage and grief over their deaths?