The World We Live In
[Today’s guest post by Alycia Hartley is part of our paid blogging program.]
Two things have happened to me in the past few weeks that may seem unrelated, but have become connected for me. One is a video that has gone viral on YouTube; as of my writing, it has over 13 million views. It is of a fireman saving a kitten from a burning building:
The other is the story of an abortionist who takes photos of pre-born babies she has aborted. Her reason for doing so is that the parents can then remember the “birth” of the aborted baby.
Now, I know the stories seem unconnected, but for me they
seem to be an eerie display of the value our culture places more on animals at
times than the pre-born. Most people believe that people are worth more than animals, with the exception of those who are anti-speciest, who believe that people and animals have equal value. But I don’t think too many
people would say that people worth less than animals.
When
we live in a world that is moved by the rescue of a small kitten, yet remains
largely unmoved by the daily barbaric killing of pre-born children, something
seems very wrong. This disregard towards the unborn
finds its epitome in the fact that some parents are not only willing to kill
their pre-born children, but to have photographs taken of the murdered baby as
a memento.The connections between the two stories only solidify for me
a trend I have seen when working with graphic images of abortion on college
campuses. Many people are so numb to abortion that they either try their best
to make some sly (or sometimes sickening) comment, or try to not look at what
abortion is.
Both of these stories deal with images, one of which is of a
kitten fighting for its life, the other of babies that have been aborted. Why
is it that so many people look at the aftermath of an abortion and are unmoved,
yet 13 million people have been moved by the sight of a kitten being saved? To be clear, there is nothing wrong with the fireman saving the kitten (as
long as he removed the people from the building first), and nothing wrong with liking this video. But before we get too excited about saving kittens,
maybe we should first feel overwhelmed as a culture with the 50 million
children and counting who have been murdered since Roe v. Wade.
As a culture we are overwhelmed we do not know how to understand the senseless taking of innocent human life so we trivialize it.
Most of us cannot justify the destruction of human life so many of us do not acknowledge the fact that a human life is present. A fireman saving a kitten on the other hand does not make us think about ethical questions.
Sure it is not logical, especially for those of us who believe in human exceptionalism, but it is easier to ignore the tragic loss of human life, or justify this loss in some way than to actually deal with an actual ethical issue. The kitten being saved is a warm fuzzy story with no controversial ethical connotations.
I have long felt this way. Good reminder.
I am a religious pro-lifer, but don't think you need to be religious to recognize the value of human life. Thank you for your efforts and perspective in this discussion.
I also find it particularly messed up that there are SO MANY kittens and cats killed daily in "rescue" shelters, yet because these animals are euthanized no one seems to care. But the rescue of a kitten most shelters would give up for dead moves so many people. That, and the connection with abortion (and indeed, the loss of many other human lives that are so easy to save), bothers me so much.
Very well written and so true. I see this in our culture every day