Steve Heronemus
Like, Follow, Write.
  • Home
  • beLIeVE with Steve
  • Horn Calls
  • Under/Current
  • Movies from the Big Chair
  • Recommendations
  • Contact

Current events, crushed.

It's a deep, dark abyss in this mind. The pressures at these depths compress normal thought into rock candy for the grotesque creatures I call Ideas. 

Thoughtful commenters welcome; all others go away and buy a thought you can take out in public.

The Value Of Life

2/5/2017

Comments

 
This will be hard. This may be controversial. This is certainly radical thinking and may spark arguments, but today I am going to write something that is truly central to who I am.
My last post was trolled for sympathizing with people being barred from entering the country. A few days ago I saw an interview with an administration adviser who, after being asked if it is right to keep children out of the country, turned the question around by asking the interviewer if he was willing to risk his children's lives by permitting entry for the wrong person. That interview really set me off, but not just for the blatant fearmongering. Here's why.
Behind the adviser's question, and the interviewer's answer, lurks a horrifying calculus: our children, our lives, are worth more than Theirs. The answer to the adviser's question should be an unequivocal "Yes".
I love my children. I love my wife. I love my extended family. I would do anything for them. But my life is no more valuable than that of a Syrian refugee's. My children have no more worth than a Yemeni or Somali young adult. If I am unwilling to risk my life to save another's, I am giving my life more value than that of that person.
As a Christian I am commanded to love all others as I love myself, and I am taught that there is no greater love than to lay down my life to save another. The immigration and refugee ban imposed by the administration, allegedly to spare our lives, is a direct affront to my religious belief.
This does not decrease the value of my life or my family's; it elevates the value of others. People around the world are dying from persecution, from warfare, from hunger, disease, lack of education, and unequal status. Now people will die because of our policy, because of our fear, because of our lack of faith. I will not be quiet about this. 
Conservatives like to talk about religious freedom and American exceptionalism. Banning people from our freedoms because of their religion is exceptional only in its cowardice.
Comments

    Author

    Being unemployably disabled gives Steve time to ponder the world. With 25 years of business consulting experience and a Masters of International Business, some of these ponderings are credible. 

    Archives

    February 2018
    June 2017
    May 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    September 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014

    Categories

    All
    ALS
    Health Insurance
    Helth Insurance
    Justice
    Politics

    RSS Feed

Photo used under Creative Commons from GollyGforce - Living My Worst Nightmare