MIXED EMOTIONS

John Brown

Robert Dear

  There is a joke that goes like this. What is the definition of mixed emotions? Watching your mother-in-law drive off a cliff in your brand new Cadillac. I have always had mixed emotions whenever I hear of an abortion clinic bombing. A shooting, such as in the case of the attack by Robert Dear on a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs this past Friday. Or the occasional murder of an abortion doctor. On the one hand I realize that in a civilized society we must condemn the acts of individuals who take the law into their own hands. Over the period of two days, October 16 to 18th 1859, abolitionist John Brown led 22 men in an attack on the Federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry Virginia, which is now West Virginia. His intention was to start a slave insurrection that he hoped would spread across the South. Colonel Robert E. Lee and JEB Stuart, who were United States Army officers at the time, were called in to organize a raid on the arsenal, by a detachment of Marines. Lee's men killed 10 of Brown's men and captured 7, including a severely injured Brown. Five men were able to escape. One Marine was killed and one wounded, along with an unknown number of Virginia state militia. Brown would be tried in a trial in which he was brought into court on a stretcher. He was convicted of treason against the state of Virginia and hanged in the present day city of Charleston West Virginia. John Wilkes Booth would be on hand to witness the execution.

  I have always had mixed emotions about John Brown. His cause was just but his methods were wrong. Slavery was the law of the land in 1859. Abortion is the law of the land today. Martin Luther King wrote that unjust law is no law at all in his famous letter from the Birmingham jail in 1963. He also said that law that is not in harmony with moral law is unjust. When I visited the museum at Harpers Ferry arsenal in 2005 I read that many people considered John Brown to be a hero. Brown and 6 of his followers hacked 5 unarmed pro-slavery men to death on the banks of Pottawatomie creek Kansas with broad swords on May 24th 1856. I know very little about Robert Dear. In his mug shot he looks crazy. John Brown looks crazy in the pictures taken before the attack on Harper's Ferry Virginia. Brown hated slavery and was trying to instigate a slave rebellion. We really don't know what was driving Robert Dear. Pro abortion advocates are pushing the narrative that the recent revelations and videos about Planned Parenthood's selling of body parts were Dears motivation for attacking Planned Parenthood. It has been revealed that he had registered to vote Democratic as a woman and has been arrested numerous times for various charges including such things as being a peeping Tom and cruelty to animals. For the sake of argument let's assume that Dear was anti-abortion. As Hillary might say, what difference does it make? John Brown was an abolitionist but most abolitionists never killed anybody. Most people who are pro-life have never killed anybody and never will. The left wants to acknowledge a link between anti-abortion rhetoric, which is based on fact, with an attack on Planned Parenthood. They refuse to acknowledge a link by the race baiting talk of Al Sharpton, Eric Holder and Barack Obama to the recent acts of violence against white police officers and white people in this country.  

  Both slavery and abortion are similar in the sense that it is easier to enslave someone or kill people if you first deprive them of their humanity. During slavery many white people came to believe that slaves were less than human. Many even believed that they did not have a soul. John Locke in his Second Treatise of government declared that chattel slaves were not included when he said that all men are created equal with certain inalienable rights. Jefferson on the other hand was including slaves when he wrote these words in the Declaration of Independence. By the time of the Civil War slaves were a much more valuable commodity to the slave owner than they were in Jefferson's day. This was because of King Cotton and the invention of the cotton gin. You cannot justify holding a man in slavery if he is human and has a soul. The abortionists refuse to think of an unborn baby as human. It is a fetus or a piece of tissue. The baby's body parts are of more value to the abortionists than the baby. Calling it a fetus is a way of denying it's humanity. Making it easier to kill. The Germans made propaganda films before the holocaust depicting Jews as rats and cockroaches. It is easier to kill a rat or cockroach than a human. 

  If I saw a person put a gun to the head of a two week old baby and I killed that person in order to save the baby, most people, even those who are pro abortion, would call me a hero. Watching the videos of Planned Parenthood employees casually eating and sipping wine while discussing the sale of baby body parts was like watching a scene from Schindler's list. The only way that I can rationalize my dilemma is that if I am pro-life then all lives are important. Even the lives of the abortionists. I commend Garrett Swasey, the police officer who gave his life trying to protect the people at Planned Parenthood. It is my understanding that he was against abortion but he gave his life protecting others. If I refuse to value all life then I am no better than those that casually take life. I can't help having mixed emotions but all people that are pro-life must condemn the actions of Robert Dear if they are going to be consistent. I am inclined to believe that Dear was simply mentally ill and was not an anti abortion advocate. The rest of us who are pro-life should never give up the fight to stop the holocaust that is going on in this country's abortion clinics. Over fifty million babies have died since the Roe vs. Wade decision in 1973. A decision that made abortion legal through all nine months of pregnancy. Polls show that most Americans agree that this is wrong.