Hearts of stone and heads of granite: O Lord may you take them from us and give us hearts of flesh and minds which no longer take life for granted.
“Isn’t this just great? The first black man has been elected President! What a great day! You can celebrate, right? You’re happy, right? ”
“No, I’m sorry, I’m not happy. I’m glad we broke the barrier, but, for me, this day is a like a tragedy.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Well, I’m pro-life.”
“What’s that? Oh yeah, that has to do with being against abortion, right?
Yes, somebody actually said that. I found out that some people voted for Obama without knowing some bare basics about what he believed about this and other things.
“You mean Obama’s not ‘pro-life’? I figured he was. He seems like such a nice guy.”
“He’s an utter catastrophe for anyone like me.”
“In what way?”
“For one thing, do you know what bill he plans to sign first? Guess,”
“No idea, what?”
“Obama said, ‘the first thing I’d do as President is sign the Freedom of Choice Act’ and Pelosi has said the same thing, so it’ll almost certainly be done.”
“What’s that, ‘Freedom of Choice Act’?”
“It’s a law that will get rid of any and all restrictions on abortion. ALL laws wiped off the books. There’ll be no more parental notification or anything and YOUR taxes and MINE will now be used to pay for abortions.”
“Whoa, I don’t agree with that, even if I’m not sure I totally agree on abortion. Why didn’t we hear about that?”
“Are you kidding me? You expected the press that was so in the tank for Obama to report anything?? Don’t you know how much they covered over for him?”
“Yeah, I know they were all in the tank for him.”
When I brought up the press coverage, people hung their head in guilty recognition. Several things I mentioned, like the Fairness Doctrine, the Mandatory Service Plan, the 2001 Share the Wealth Tape, and a host of others, they either hadn’t heard of at all or they knew little about it. They looked truly shocked.
“Well, I DO think we should stop that bill anyway.”
“It’s too late.”
“What do you mean?”
“Do you figure you can call your Senator to ask them not to vote for it?”
“Yeah, right.”
“Who’re you going to call, Shaheen, who we just elected?”
“Yeah, why not?”
“She’s a former board member for Planned Parenthood that makes hundreds of millions from abortion. Do you think she’s going to stop it?”
“Well, aren’t there others?”
“Yesterday was our chance. Now it’s TOO LATE! What’s going to stop them NOW? NOTHING! The pro-abortion people now control it all and there is NOTHING left to stop them. And you want me to be happy?!”
“I didn’t know that about Obama, but he’s good on other things. He’ll be better on the economy, won’t he?”
“It’s too much like socialism to me.”
“I’m not quite sure, what’s socialism again?”
“Never mind.”
“He’s better than Bush. He’ll get us out of our wars…”
Most people spouted anti-Bush platitudes or comments on personality, symbolism and appearances or how great it will look to the world. The euphoria from the acceptance speech the night before was what was driving most of them.
“Listen, we’re friends, and I sincerely wish I could really be happy with you today. But, with everything I know, I can only feel really upset and scared for my country.”
“You’re just mad because you lost. Isn’t he your President now? Shouldn’t you support him?”
“He is going to be my President and ours and I will pray for him every day. I won’t be disrespectful. But I’m not going to be quiet anymore; if he does the wrong thing I’m not going to pretend it’s just great and say nothing. And I’m not going to ACCEPT things like the Freedom of Choice Act or other things that could mean the ruin of our country. I won’t go along and say it’s OK.”
“Wow, you really threw a wet blanket on my day.”
“I’m really sorry. You know I respect you and you’re important to me and this shouldn’t get in the way of our friendship.”
“The feeling is mutual. Well, gotta get to work. See ya.”
Every single one of the people I talked to remain my good friends or working acquaintances. I think my honest reactions gave them pause for thought. Now we’ll all have to wait and see what happens over the coming days. I don’t think these Granite State friends will ever take the life issue for granted again.
We turn away to face the cold, enduring chill
As the day begs the night for mercy love
The sun so bright, it leaves no shadows
Only scars carved into stone on the face of it
The moon is up over One Tree Hill
We see the sun go down in your eyes….
I’ll see you again when the stars fall from the sky
And the moon has turned red over One Tree Hill
– U2, “One Tree Hill”
