Two Sides To Every Debate

While there is no denying that the current state of America is anything but pleasant, the article written by Allene Callen (Our Generation Aug. 30) had a valuable message and yet seemed untruthful.

It is true that “thousands of children are silenced in abortion clinics.” When abortion was illegal, those thousands were silenced by coat hangers, or by their mothers being thrown down the stairs. Neither of those practices was sanitary, and both mother and child usually ended up dying. If abortion becomes illegal again, these practices will substitute for it.

And many people are not willing to pay for those thousands of silenced children through taxes. Tax cuts are already taking money away from schools and welfare programs. Those silenced children would require support from higher taxes, yet the Spokane area has large tax-cut lobbies and an equally high number of persons who vote against abortion. Abortion is at its lowest point in the past 20 years.

As for “children who think it is OK to kill someone” because “they haven’t been taught any better,” what does that say for this country using the death penalty?

While volunteering can open one’s eyes and change many adverse events, the only way to truly make a difference in the world is, as Buddha said, to “Put away all hindrances, let your mind full of love pervade one quarter of the world, and so too the second quarter, and so the third, and so the fourth. And thus the whole world wide, above, below, around and everywhere, altogether continue to pervade with love-filled thought, abounding, sublime, beyond measure, free from hatred and ill-will.”