MH - The Nature of Good and Evil

"Nearly half the newborn babies who died in Flanders [Belgium] over a recent year-long period were helped to die by their doctors." This according to a study in the British medical journel The Lancet. There were 298 infant deaths in total in this region, which should give you an idea of the number of euthanized children we're talking about. Thanks to Old Oligarch, via Eve Tushnet, for the story.

Now, the reason I bring this up is not to give you more bad news just for the sake of bad news - there seems to be hardly a week where we don't post some kind of story like this. But in the legacy of Terri Schiavo - which we're going to continue, by the way - these stories gain more importance.

The point I'm going for here is not repetition, but education. Many, if not most of our regular readers, don't need to be convinced of the evil that is in the world; but many of you out there, even those with a true dedication to the dignity of life and a strong commitment to promoting good, are sometimes taken aback by the sheer volume of evil out there.

I can remember a number of years ago passing along a story like this to an acquaintance, who refused to accept that it was true. This person was a decent person - no better nor no worse than anyone else - but I don't know whether or not this person had any kind of strong commitment to anything other that success in business. But the story I related just couldn't be true - I must have misunderstood somehow.

Well, as most of you probably know by now, if there's one thing I don't like, it's being told that I'm wrong when I know I'm right. (Of course, one of my problems is that I always think I'm right, but that's another story.) And one of the things you need to be able to do in situations like this is prove what you're talking about. That's why we provide stories like this, information that you might not have access to elsewhere, or might not be aware of.

Evil is real, and it's out there. Some people don't want to deal with that - they clamp their hands over their ears and try to drown it out. Others simply deny it - they blame the messenger, they scoff at the news, they use ridicule as the best weapon. These are the people who would have laughed a few years ago if you'd suggested a constitutional amendment to protect marriage might have been necessary. They're the people who laugh now if you point out that bigamy could be the next taboo to go.

I suppose in a way it's a mark of the innate goodness of many people that they react with horror and disbelief to such horrific possibilities; in their heart of hearts they simply can't believe anyone would go along with such a ridiculous proposition. Unfortunately, we all know where the roads paved with good intentions lead to. It's another symptom of the decline of this country that people want to think with their hearts instead of their minds. But it's been my experience over the last couple of years that more and more people are wising up; they're starting to believe that the worst is not only possible, but there are people out there dedicated to making it happen.

I created a stir at a job once by questioning the involvement the Susan Komen Foundation has with Planned Parenthood. At first people didn't want to believe it; the fight against breast cancer is such a good cause, so noble, so politically correct in Corporate America, there can't possibly be anything wrong with it. What would Planned Parenthood have to do with breast cancer? When I pointed out to them that the relationship was true (and that, incidentally, PP has a very good reason for wanting to deny a connection between breast cancer and abortion), they fell back to another form of denial; well, that may be so, but even so I'm sure their involvement is merely an educational one. PP can do some good things, can't it? For that, I'd direct you back to one of my favorite blogs, The Dawn Patrol. Dawn has done some great work on PP, and this is her latest, an unfortunate tie-in to our initial story: "Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers quietly destroy 80 percent of all children in utero who have Down syndrome." Now, regardless of the merits of fighting breast cancer (a noble, noble cause; I've known courageous women who've successfully fought this disease), can you really tell me you're comfortable giving money to an organization that funds a group like PP? There are a lot of breast cancer events going on around Mother's Day; I have a feeling you and I are going to be revisiting this post in a few weeks.

That's the nature of good and evil. Evil can be subtle, masking it's presence, entering under cover of darkness; but it can also be bold, transparent, so obvious that it makes otherwise good people doubt its existance. You and I know better; otherwise, you probably wouldn't be reading this blog. The easiest way for the devil to win, for evil to emerge triumphant, is for good men and women to do nothing. And that's why we publish some of the information we do; if you're going to fight the good fight, you need to make sure you have the ammo.