I am a pro-Second Amendment, pro-choice pro-lifer. (I think you can be both. You can wish that there was no need for abortions; that women and young girls could carry their babies to term and put them up for adoption.) In fact, you know what would be ideal? If there could be a way to match up expectant mothers with couples or singles willing to adopt and have the adoptive parents pay all the mother's medical expenses. Why not? I mean, if the adoptive parents were to conceive a child, they'd have to pay all those expenses anyway, right? So why not pay them for a woman or girl who might not be financially able?
On the other hand, I would never, ever, tell a woman/girl that she shouldn't or can't have an abortion. It's totally her decision. I think it would be good for the parents to have input... until a girl is 18, her parents are/should be responsible for all her medical care. After all, a school nurse can't give a student an aspirin without parental consent, but he/she can send her off to have a medical procedure done? How does that make sense?
As far as being pro-Second Amendment, I've seen a few memes the past couple of days, the gist of which are taking guns away from the innocent people won't protect them from criminals. As I said earlier this morning, criminals will get guns any way they can, either by stealing them or buying them on the black market. They're criminals, of course they're going to get them illegally! One thing we MUST do to cut down on the number of shootings at schools, theaters, houses of worship, etc., is teach our children respect for firearms and respect for human life. Most of us know that guns are not toys, and violence is almost never the answer to a person's problems. (With the exception of self-defense, and even then you're supposed to only use the same force that's used against you. If someone slaps you in the face, you don't pull out a knife and stab them. Of course if someone slaps you, you're supposed to first try to talk it out with them, then try to walk away, and only if they escalate things is violence appropriate.)
Something I'm just going to put out there, even though this has nothing to do with what's been going on the past couple of days: I am all in favor of gay rights, marriage equality, and indeed anything that would help make things better for our GLBT brothers and sisters. Liberals talk about "separation of church and state". Conservatives say, quite rightly, that those five words appear nowhere in the Constitution, much less in the first amendment. They're right; as we all know, those words were written in a letter from Thomas Jefferson to the Baptist Church in Danbury, CT. But even though the words themselves are not in the Constitution, I believe the spirit is there.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;[...]
To me that means that there should be no national religion, whether it's Christian, Buddhist, Islam, Hindu, etc. And of course, we are all free to believe, or not, as we wish. This is important. This means that even if we believe that homosexuality is wrong/sinful, we have no right to try to impose our religious beliefs on our fellow Americans. We could go on forever about the right we have to vote our consciences, which we all try to do. In the recent election, some people thought that Obama was the devil, and some thought the same thing about Romney. We all had our ideas about which of them was best to lead our country. (Personally, I voted for Obama because, well, better the devil we know than the one we don't. He did some good things during his first term (in my opinion), and he did some that weren't so good, but at least he has four more years to try to straighten things out. If he can just get Congress on board!) /digression
We can also go on about whether "gay civil rights" are akin to black civil rights, or if gays even have civil rights. I believe they should. Anytime a specific group of people is attacked because of who they are, it should be a civil rights issue. I am of the opinion that GLBTs can't change their sexual orientation any more than a black (or Latino or Asian or Middle Easterner) can change their skin color. It's just not possible. (And please don't get me started on the "ex-gay" thing. I've heard about too many studies proving that "conversion therapy" is a bunch of hooey.)
So. That's who I am and what I believe. A pro-Second Amendment, pro-choice/pro-life, pro-gay, liberal Democrat and Christian. For those of you who have made it all the way through this post and still want to be my Facebook friend, thank you. For those of you who don't want to be my friend, well I'm sorry. Unfortunately, I've learned in life that I can't please everyone, and I'd much rather please myself and hopefully God by being the best person I can be, treating my fellow humans as I'd want to be treated, and trying to make my corner of the world a better place.
I may be returning to this theme again... I haven't covered everything I believe, but these are important. Any questions you have, just ask!
