I know it's been over a year since anyone's posted here, but this has been bothering me for awhile, and this blog is the perfect place to vent!
One of my friends posted some cutesy picture of a baby that had "We call time of death when the heartbeat stops, why don't we call time of life when it starts?" or something like that. It annoyed me. For one thing, I think abortion is a serious issue and stupid little memes like that just seem so disrespectful to both sides of the argument. It also bothered me because the way we define life isn't that simple, and as this person went through the surgical tech program with me, where we spent like 2 weeks on that, should know better. So I pointed out that the heartbeat isn't always the line we draw between alive and not alive, as everyone who reads this knows. She responded with something like "Well I believe that one cell is alive." Uh... yeah... of course it is? No one has ever said that the embryo isn't alive. And that's totally not the point. I responded with something about how those little cute pictures bother me anyway, and she just said "agree to disagree."
Here's the thing, I think you should have whatever view you want on abortion. We are all allowed to have our own opinions. And this is a pretty divisive topic, I get that. One side thinks we're murdering babies, one side thinks the government is telling women what they can or can't do with their bodies and are effectively ruining their lives. But if you believe that that one cell is a human being, and that abortion is murder, shouldn't you try to change people's minds? And if you're so sure of your belief, why would it scare you so much to hear an opposing viewpoint? That's what bothers me the most about that phrase. It's saying "I don't want to hear your opinion. I don't think there's any value to it, and my mind is completely closed to anything different from what I think." When we refuse to hear anything other than what we already believe, we stagnate. Growth stops. Improvement ends. I understand that in this case, she probably just didn't want to get into that kind of discussion on facebook, but she could have just said that. Not that she is so set in her ways that she wont hear any dissent, even if that just makes her belief stronger. After all, shouldn't you be able to defend your ideas? Especially if you're trying to make a law about it? Shouldn't you know why you believe that, and know why the other side believes what they do?
I do not "agree to disagree." I agree to keep the conversation going, even if neither of us ever change our minds, because the conversation is important!
One of my friends posted some cutesy picture of a baby that had "We call time of death when the heartbeat stops, why don't we call time of life when it starts?" or something like that. It annoyed me. For one thing, I think abortion is a serious issue and stupid little memes like that just seem so disrespectful to both sides of the argument. It also bothered me because the way we define life isn't that simple, and as this person went through the surgical tech program with me, where we spent like 2 weeks on that, should know better. So I pointed out that the heartbeat isn't always the line we draw between alive and not alive, as everyone who reads this knows. She responded with something like "Well I believe that one cell is alive." Uh... yeah... of course it is? No one has ever said that the embryo isn't alive. And that's totally not the point. I responded with something about how those little cute pictures bother me anyway, and she just said "agree to disagree."
Here's the thing, I think you should have whatever view you want on abortion. We are all allowed to have our own opinions. And this is a pretty divisive topic, I get that. One side thinks we're murdering babies, one side thinks the government is telling women what they can or can't do with their bodies and are effectively ruining their lives. But if you believe that that one cell is a human being, and that abortion is murder, shouldn't you try to change people's minds? And if you're so sure of your belief, why would it scare you so much to hear an opposing viewpoint? That's what bothers me the most about that phrase. It's saying "I don't want to hear your opinion. I don't think there's any value to it, and my mind is completely closed to anything different from what I think." When we refuse to hear anything other than what we already believe, we stagnate. Growth stops. Improvement ends. I understand that in this case, she probably just didn't want to get into that kind of discussion on facebook, but she could have just said that. Not that she is so set in her ways that she wont hear any dissent, even if that just makes her belief stronger. After all, shouldn't you be able to defend your ideas? Especially if you're trying to make a law about it? Shouldn't you know why you believe that, and know why the other side believes what they do?
I do not "agree to disagree." I agree to keep the conversation going, even if neither of us ever change our minds, because the conversation is important!
I agree. Go ahead and vent here. I don't think anyone else is reading it!
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