Abortion

“Good intention, horrible execution” is a depressingly common occurrence in humanity. One of the largest movements in which I, and many others, see this happening is the Pro-Life movement. (I’d like to preface this paper with this: I know we have vastly opposing opinions; each of us pursuing what we think is right. I think it’s very noble, and I have only the utmost respect for you and your actions).
When boiled down, the Pro-Life movement has a simple goal: Illegalize abortion to save the life of unborn fetuses, with some branches also working towards the illegalization of contraceptives. When it is phrased like this, it’s hard to not think “What a great idea!”. Because, in theory it (sort of) is. But in practice, it (really) isn’t. The motivation behind this is simple: a fetus, no matter the stage of development, is human life. Murder is illegal, and killing a fetus (if it is considered human life) is murder. Ergo abortion should be illegal. Then there is the opposing front: the Pro-Choice (or anti-life, depending on the side you’re on) movement. Their beliefs are about the polar opposite. Abortion should be legal, as should birth control, especially in cases when the mothers life is in danger (some pro-lifers agree to this but sadly others don’t). Most pro-choicers agree that life only begins when a fetus can survive outside the womb, and that a woman should have full control of her body and the government should play no part. Now what is the Pro-Life movement doing that’s so wrong?
The short answer is there is no short answer. Moral ambiguity plays a large role in this fight. The PL movement does many things they think will lower abortion rates and work to illegalization of it. However, trying to get Planned Parenthood shut down isn’t really going to help. It’s only going to strip women of vital health operations and tools (STD testing, cancer screening and prevention, other women's health services) and safe abortions. But why should the PL movement care about getting rid of safe abortions? The goal is to get rid of ALL abortion! Well, turns out that getting rid of safe, affordable abortion services only leads to more death. Women seek out dangerous back alley abortions by untrained operators and end up dead, along with their valuable fetus (which sometimes seems to be valued more than the woman herself). You may think, “well we can just work so these women will stop seeking out abortions”. That’s not going to happen. Here are some facts to show how cutting off legal abortion affects overall abortion rates.
“Highly restrictive abortion laws are not associated with lower abortion rates. For example, the abortion rate is 29 per 1,000 women of childbearing age in Africa and 32 per 1,000 in Latin America—regions in which abortion is illegal under most circumstances in the majority of countries. The rate is 12 per 1,000 in Western Europe, where abortion is generally permitted on broad grounds.” (1)
Not very difficult to see that banning abortion won’t solve what Pro-Lifers see as a problem. But there are many things that could be done that would lower abortion rates and accomplish what the Pro-Lifers want to accomplish.
“Both the lowest and highest subregional abortion rates are in Europe, where abortion is generally legal under broad grounds. In Western Europe, the rate is 12 per 1,000 women, while in Eastern Europe it is 43 [per 1,000 women]. The discrepancy in rates between the two regions reflects relatively low contraceptive use in Eastern Europe, as well as a high degree of reliance on methods with relatively high user failure rates, such as the condom, withdrawal and the rhythm method.” (1)
As it turns out, birth control will lower the abortion rate. But, alas, another moral dilemma. Many Pro-Lifers believe birth control to also be a form of murder. On this one, I’ll let the facts speak for themselves.
“The anti-birth control crowd leaves out one very important fact: a woman’s body naturally rejects at least 18% of fertilized eggs. This means that if you have unprotected sex that leads to the fertilization of an egg (30% chance of successful fertilization), the resulting zygote has an 18% chance of being rejected by the uterus. The human body naturally performs “abortions” almost 20% of the time. So does taking birth control actually increase the chances of zygote abortion, or does birth control actually reduce the chances of this occurring? Let’s do the math.

Without Birth Control:

• Out of 100 fertile women without birth control, 100 of them will ovulate in any given month.
• Out of those 100 released eggs, 33 will become fertilized.
• Out of those 33, 18% will be rejected by the uterus.
• In a group of 100 women not on birth control: 6 zygotes will “die”

With Birth Control:

• Out of 100 fertile women on birth control, around 6 of them will ovulate in any given month.
• Out of those 6 released eggs, only 2 will become fertilized.
• Out of those 2, 100% will be rejected by the uterus.
• In a group of 100 women on birth control: 2 zygotes will “die”

So let’s get this straight, taking birth control makes a woman’s body LESS likely to dispel fertilized eggs. If you believe that life begins at conception, shouldn’t it be your moral duty to reduce the number of zygote “abortions?” If you believe that a zygote is a human, you actually kill more babies by refusing to take birth control.” (2)
So, yes, birth control will lower the amount of zygotes (which according to the Pro-Life movement is life) that ‘die’ naturally. Which is why birth control needs to be legal and available to women everywhere.
“If the Pro-Life movement was really so intent on saving life, they’d fund research as to why some zygotes die. Name a disease and there’s a charitable research foundation committed to finding a cure, and for just about every such foundation there’s a corresponding 5k race or walkathon, lemonade stand, bake sale, golf tournament, banquet, concert, gala or festival to raise funds.
But for the biggest killer of them all, there’s nothing.
No 5k or 10k. No walkathon. No foundation promoting research. No research.
The deadly scourge that claims half of all human lives ever conceived is completely ignored.
Here’s Jonathan Dudley discussing this killer in his book Broken Words:
Due to hormone imbalances, genetic anomalies, and a number of unknown factors, between 50 percent and 75 percent of embryos fail to implant in the uterus and are passed with the monthly menstrual flow. If we agree with pro-life advocates that every embryo is as morally valuable as an adult human, this means that more than half of humans immediately die. This fact provides pro-life advocates with an opportunity to follow through on their convictions. Surely, a moral response to a pandemic of this magnitude would be to rally the scientific community to devote the vast majority of its efforts to better understanding why this happens and trying to stop it. Yet the same pro-life leaders who declare that every embryo is morally equivalent to a fully developed child have done nothing to advocate such research. … Even if medicine could save only 10 percent of these embryos — and we don’t know because no one has cared enough to ask — it would be saving more lives than curing HIV, diabetes, and malaria combined.One could say that this massive loss of human life is natural, and therefore, humans are under no obligation to end it. But it is not clear why the same argument could not be used to justify complacency in the face of AIDS, cancer, heart disease, and other natural causes of human death.
For anyone who genuinely believes the pro-life argument that “every embryo is morally equivalent to a fully developed child,” the sort of research Dudley describes ought to be an inescapable obligation.
And yet there are no charitable events to support the foundations funding such research. No such foundations exist to be supported. No such research exists to be funded. (3)
So, if the Pro-Life movement isn’t really about lowering the amount of lost zygotes/embryos/babies, then what is it about? To shame women who have sex? Or, is it really about saving lives? I think, yes, it is about saving lives. I, however, think that the movement's current actions are doing nothing to really serve their cause. Many kind hearted people support this movement, because on the surface it is noble and just. But deep down, it’s far from it.
These are far from complete coherent thoughts, but more so the gist of the facts. Not intended to glorify the Pro-Choice movement, but to point out the major flaws in the Pro-Life movement.
Sources:
1: http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_IAW.html
2:http://sarah-whoiamwithoutyou.blogspot.com/2012/10/anti-birth-control-or-anti-women.html
http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_IAW.html
3:http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2012/10/24/no-5k-for-the-biggest-killer-so-does-anyone-really-believe-its-a-killer/

“Is all that we see or seem, but a dream within a dream?”
-Edgar Allan Poe

Think of the vast, incomprehensible amount of space that is the earth.
Think of all the continents you’ll never go to; the countries you’ll never see; the cities you’ll never experience.
The people you’ll never meet and the houses you’ll never enter.
Sure, you’ll see pictures and videos.
But how do we know; how can we be sure, that anything is there?
Behind that facade could be a living room with pictures and memories frozen in time. Or, an perpetual state of nothingness, only changed by your existence.
Yes, you.
The world is yours.
The world is a figment of your imagination.
A computer simulation.
The dream of a slumbering dragon.
Nothing exists until you make it exist.
And with every birth is a death.
Can we ever know the whole earth?
Why not? It is your world.
You did create it.
But limitations exist to the amount you can know for you are not omnipotent.
Each opened door closes another, leaving us running from door to door out of breath, trying out best to make everything exist at once.
But we cannot take in all that is the earth at once, so we must open each door, one by one.

“When the times are a crucible, when the air is full of crisis,” she said, “those who are the most themselves are the victims.” (238)
-Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
By Gregory Macguire

            Evidently, I’ve been quite engrossed with Wicked lately. The novel, which is an expansion to the universe originally crafted by L. Frank Baum in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and subsequent films/plays/novels, tells the tale of Elphaba, also known as the Wicked Witch of the West. This book is, in my opinion, absolutely amazing. Not only does it serve to add rich history to Oz, but it is also largely symbolic and deals with what is really evil and how we perceive wickedness.

            In the above quote, Princess Nastoya, an elephant who takes the form of a human to avoid poaching, is addressing Elphaba about her situation. To break this down before I being to analyze, this quote is basically saying ‘When times are hard, people who refuse to change suffer the most.’ When I read this, it really struck me as one of the best lines of the book. Not only does it fit the situation our protagonist (antagonist, depending on what side you take) is going through, but it can also be ripped out of the book and applied to life. Within the story this can be interpreted to mean ‘If I showed what I really was, an elephant, I would be killed.’ But outside the story, the limits are endless. What comes to mind to me is the Holocaust. When Jews were being taken to the camps, those who chose not to hide their religion or sadly, couldn’t, were taken away and killed. But those who hide or disguised themselves survived, if only for a little while longer. In our society, we are hypocritically raised being told ‘Don’t hide who you are.’ ‘Be who you want to be.’ The hypocritical side to this is how our society condemns those who do not fit their definition of ‘normal’ (people of different religions, alternative lifestyles, etc.). But showing who we truly are, in certain situations, could put us in danger. Simply for self-preservation, it may be in our best interest to sometimes disguise ourselves in layers of faux personality. We just need to make sure we don’t bury ourselves too deep.

            I’d like to take this paragraph to touch on the idea of ‘burying ourselves too deep [in faux personality]’, as I brought up before. What I meant by this was that if we hide ourselves from the world for too long, we may end up hiding ourselves from ourselves. A bit abstract, yes, but I think we can comprehend that idea. We see this often in popular culture and also in our everyday lives. To fit in, someone may take up false interests. But after a while, they being to actually feel the way they were acting and then lose their old selves. Now, if the person is happy, is this really a bad thing? No, it’s not. If you radically change, as long as you are still happy, it’s fine. It is human nature to change and evolve over time. But on the other hand, you aren’t really you anymore. You have morphed into who you wanted to be. You have changed, either to protect yourself or to fit in. You have buried yourself too deep.

            I think the best thing we can do is be who we are, unless it is absolutely necessary to change. But we shouldn’t change for too long, because the worst thing that can happen to a person is for them to lose who they really are. I try my best to never act falsely. Everyone at school talks about sports, but I hate sports. I could take up a fake interest in sports and be included in their conversations, but I simply don’t care. I have a thirst for literature and music, not trivial ball games (though it can be argued that music is trivial; but not literature. Anyone who says literature is trivial is a fool). I stand very firm in my opinions and interests, and I think it’s quite a respectable quality in a person. Not to say that someone who gives in and changes to fit in isn’t respectable. I think they’re a victim in this situation, but not a helpless victim. We can always stand tall for what we love. Show no shame, take no flack, and be who you are. Because is a life of pretending really a life worth living?

You're Never Old Enough

You'll never feel old enough. You'll never feel old enough to end up at a party with alcohol. You'll never feel old enough to be offered drugs. You think, I'm too young for this. This only happens to older kids. We have these images of 'older kids' in our mind. You never realize when you slowly morph into one.

“They didn't understand what they were doing.
I'm afraid that will be on the tombstone of the human race.” -Michael Crichton

   Michael Crichton has always been one of my favorite writers, only surpassed by George R.R. Martin and Edgar Allan Poe. If the name sounds familiar to you, it’s because Crichton wrote  numerous best sellers, many of which were turned into films. Does Jurassic Park ring a bell? Crichton wrote it. The Andromeda Strain? Crichton wrote it. Congo? Yep, you guessed it. Crichton wrote it. When I settled upon basing this paper on a Crichton quote, I sat for a good few minutes going over all the things he had said; all the highlights in my books. Crichton was a master of words, commanding them with power and elegance. I’ll probably end up attaching a page or two of my favorite Crichton quotes, and I hope it will encourage anyone who reads this to delve into the wonderful world of Michael Crichton novels. But now to the point.

    This quote weighs heavy on me, and has since I first read it. I think it is the best way to sum up humans. We don’t know what we’re doing; we’re sheep separated from the herd. Or as Crichton might say, ‘A leaf that doesn’t know it’s part of the tree.’ We are beings with immense potential, dropped into the world with no guidance. There are no guidelines, no instructors. Everything we have discovered we have discovered on our own, and I think it’s marvelous. Take a second to appreciate that fact. You’re reading this in English, a language that we created. I’m typing this on a computer, which is technology that we created. It’s amazing how we can learn these things. Our trials and errors yield spectacular results many times. But we must recognize that we do not always succeed. We fail, for we are humans. One day our failures will be too much, too extreme, too disastrous. Suddenly, we will cease to be. We don’t understand what we’re doing. We are mice in a maze. We don’t know where we’re going, but we want to get there. And to add to the challenge, someone turned out the lights.

    So, can we save ourselves from our own destruction? No, we can’t. This is where Crichton’s and my opinion differ. “The planet has survived everything, in its time. It will certainly survive us.” We have been abusing this planet and using it as an experiment for too long. We have done irreversible damage. We are past the point of no return, and that’s okay. The world will run it’s course, and we will end. There’s no reason to cry over it now, for what can we do? Are our ancestors to blame? Yes, and no. They were doing what is hardwired into each and every one of us. Experimenting, learning, discovering new things. Deconstructing the world around them. Part of me believes we shouldn’t blame ourselves for our lack of guidance and our ignorance. Maybe we were created for this exact reason. A trial run of sentient beings left to their own free will. Will they prevail, or will they perish? As I’ve made clear, I believe we will perish. 
“Human beings are so destructive. I sometimes think we're a kind of plague, that will scrub the earth clean. We destroy things so well that I sometimes think, maybe that's our function. Maybe every few eons, some animal comes along that kills off the rest of the world, clears the decks, and lets evolution proceed to its next phase.” We have no one to blame but humanity. An act of God killed the dinosaurs. An act of curiosity will kill us.




Michael Crichton Quotes:

“No one escapes from life alive.”

“Life is wonderful. It's a gift to be alive, to see the sun and breathe the air. And there isn't really anything else.”

“All your life people will tell you things. And most of the time, probably ninety-five percent of the time, what they'll tell you will be wrong.”

“Everyone has a hidden agenda. Except me!”

“Living systems are never in equilibrium. They are inherently unstable. They may seem stable, but they’re not. Everything is moving and changing. In a sense, everything is on the edge of collapse.”

“In the information society, nobody thinks. We expected to banish paper, but we actually banished thought.”

“It's hard to decide who's truly brilliant; it's easier to see who's driven, which in the long run may be more important.”

“We think we know what we are doing. We have always thought so.”

“The purpose of life is to stay alive. Watch any animal in nature--all it tries to do is stay alive. It doesn't care about beliefs or philosophy. Whenever any animal's behavior puts it out of touch with the realities of its existence, it becomes extinct.”

“Human beings are so destructive. I sometimes think we're a kind of plague, that will scrub the earth clean. We destroy things so well that I sometimes think, maybe that's our function. Maybe every few eons, some animal comes along that kills off the rest of the world, clears the decks, and lets evolution proceed to its next phase.”

“Power is neither male or female.”

“In the corner store we pulled fat bottles of water from the shelves. No one thinks it's weird that we have to buy clean water, and that's how I know we're going to hell.”

“Let's be clear. The planet is not in jeopardy. We are in jeopardy. We haven't got the power to destroy the planet - or to save it. But we might have the power to save ourselves.”

“In other centuries, human beings wanted to be saved, or improved, or freed, or educated. But in our century, they want to be entertained. The great fear is not of disease or death, but of boredom. A sense of time on our hands, a sense of nothing to do. A sense that we are not amused.”

“Often I feel I go to some distant region of the world to be reminded of who I really am. There is no mystery about why this should be so. Stripped of your ordinary surroundings, your friends, your daily routines, your refrigerator full of your food, your closet full of your clothes -- with all this taken away, you are forced into direct experience. Such direct experience inevitably makes you aware of who it is that is having the experience. That's not always comfortable, but it is always invigorating.”

“Nobody is driven by abstractions like 'seeking truth.”

“Discovery, they believe, is inevitable. So they just try to do it first. That's the game in science.”

“Do you want to understand how to swim, or do you want to jump in and start swimming? Only people who are afraid of the water want to understand it. Other people jump in and get wet.”

“They always say they didn't. I never heard of one who said, 'You know, I deserve this.' Never happens.”

“He prays because he knows he doesn't control it. He's at the mercy of it.”

“Nobody dares to solve the problems-because the solution might contradict your philosophy, and for most people clinging to beliefs is more important than succeeding in the world.”

Reflection (Written For School)

            The idea of reflecting my thoughts onto paper terrified me at first. Which is hugely ironic because my favorite pastime is blogging, an internet activity where I basically write how I’m feeling and what I’m doing down on a website. But this is school, a completely different setting with completely different rules. What am I expected to write down? Am I doing this wrong? The answer, of course, is probably.

            I jumped back and forth from topic to topic over the past few days, from things close to my heart and empty shells of topics that I could easily write without having to open up. But the point of this paper is to reflect, and reflect I will. I’m choosing to write about the connections we make in high school. I guess you could say relationships, from the friendships we build to the romantic bonds we try to form. High school is a terrifying time, especially if you’re not a very social person. Balancing school work, hobbies, a social life, and enough sleep is nearly impossible. To make my life easier, I tend to forgo social relationships. I convince myself that they are not needed; that they are extra fat I can trim off. But in truth, I can’t and I know it. I need friends to survive in this world. Friends are the best support system in tough times. Everyone acts like you can talk to your parents, but really you can’t. At least I can’t. I’m very close to my parents and I love them so, but I don’t feel I can share my problems with them. How minuscule would my teenage anguish appear compared to their real world problems? That is why I don’t turn to my parents, I turn to my friends. Good friends will listen to you and not judge, because they are in the same place you are. In times of prosperity, they can make you laugh. They bring you joy and brighten up your life. I can’t even be sure I’d still be here without them. The best part is you don’t need lots. Really, you just need one. But some of us are blessed to have many more than one, and for that I am grateful.

          *removed*

            I’ve never been good at ending things, but I’ll try to review. Friends are great assets, and if you want to survive and enjoy high school you should find some who like you for who you are. Relationships are also good, and if you’re that kind of person you should have one. We all deserve to be happy.

(I apologize if this is completely wrong. I’d understand a bad grade on this assignment, because part of me doesn’t think this is what you were looking for. But I can’t deny how satisfying it felt to write this, and that’s why I’m not going to turn in a paper with problems I made up just for class. I want to turn in something I spilled my heart into, because I don’t believe in not giving 100% when it comes to writing.)

Manifestations

manifestation |ˌmanəfəˈstāSHən, -ˌfesˈtāSHən|
noun
an event, action, or object that clearly shows or embodies something, esp. a theory or an abstract idea

I have recently become obsessed with the idea of manifestations. The pure embodiment of a feeling, thought, or event in one sole object. For example, many would say that violence is the manifestation of anger. You have this unquenchable rage inside your self and you channel it through physical or verbal violence. You’re taking one of the most primal human emotions, and moving it outside your body. You’re able to tell those around you how you feel with simple action. Someone who’s never met you before could see you throwing punches and tell ‘Oh, he’s angry!’

You’re manifesting your anger into violence.

You can manifest literally everything you feel. Fear, rage, depression, anxiety, happiness, apprehension, caring. The list doesn’t end! Whether it be through facial expressions or your actions, manifestations of the human mind are how we communicate.

There’s also the idea, widely explored in fiction, of manifesting thoughts into physical objects. But that is another blog post for another night.