Saturday, April 23, 2005

Driving the lane: Why the pro-life team will never make it to the playoffs

Who do you think will win the next NBA championship? The Lakers? The Pistons? The Kings? The Phoenix Suns are looking good. Why? Because they have a lot of powerful players on their team who are not afraid to get out there and DRIVE THE LANE.

If you want to win the NBA championship, you gotta walk the walk, talk the talk and drive the lane.

If the "Culture of Life" lobby were a basketball team, they wouldn't even win a high school game. These guys are bench-sitters. You wanna really be Pro-Life? You gotta drive the lane.

Sure, it's easy for the so-called "pro-life" team to, as Dr. Carol Wolman put it, "battle fiercely to preserve the life of a woman who has been brain-dead for 15 years or clusters of human cells just fertilized -- yet turn their backs on the lives of millions around the globe who are starving and dying from curable diseases and support the killing of 100,000 Iraqis in two years for no good reason." No, this all-wimp team will never make the Pro-Life NBA.

To quote Alanna Hartzok, "For the so-called pro-life 'Christians' to stand up against the 'culture of death' that Washington politicians are espousing, they would be forced to take a stand against the entire globalization system of control, power and wealth concentration (Iraq war deaths, poverty, starvation). On the other hand, they can 'afford' to appear very concerned about life and death issues which have no political power implications." And that do not place them in any danger or stretch the envelope in any way. Protesting Terri Shaivo's death was a very bush-league thing to do and very, very easy.

Look at Rachel Corrie -- the young woman who was deliberately run over and killed while standing up to the biggest bulldozer you ever saw in your life as she tried to protest the irrational demolition of a health professional's home in Israel-Palestine. Corrie was Pro-Life. And she wasn't afraid to play in the big leagues.

Look at Marla Ruzicka -- the young woman who risked her life in Iraq while trying to find out exactly how many women and children George Bush had slaughtered there. Ruzicka drove the lane.

From the safety of your front room recliners, anyone can easily come out against abortion or protest Terri Shaivo. There is no risk involved. Kermit Washington is not going to punch you. Michael Jordan is not going to sail over your head. Jason Kidd will not outscore you. You won't even be out on the court. More likely, you will be safely off sipping a brew at some sports bar or just home watching TV.

You guys wanna REALLY be Pro-Life? Then play in the big leagues. Go on the road and play at the Baghdad superdome like Marla Ruzicka. Or, like Mother Theresa, find the nearest homeless person and star on your home team. And start demanding that the refs begin to call fouls on the riff-raff that have taken over our courts and who are destroying OUR game: Stop Bush, Wolfowitz, Sharon, Negroponte, bin Ladin, Rumsfeld, Frist and all the other death squad point-guards who are double-teaming the REAL culture of life. Let's take their multi-billion dollar contracts away and make it clear to them "If you want to be on the court, you gotta play by the rules."

If you want to play on a real Pro-Life all-star dream team -- one that will truly save lives -- then turn off the TV, get out of the locker room and start to play in the pro leagues. During the very first quarter, hit the boards bigtime. Start racking up points. Protest the brutal and unnecessary slaughter in Haiti, Sudan, Columbia, Afghanistan, Congo, Abu Ghraib -- and the environmental suicide that will destroy our children's lives. Then up your defensive game and block all those tax welfare bucks the Bush cartel is giving away to Halliburton and Bechtel's "profit from disaster" death machines.

During the second half, stop drought and starvation -- and bring our heroic troops home from Iraq where they are dying for lies, greed and profit; alone in a foreign land; picked off one by one.

By the end of the third quarter, eliminate war altogether. You'll be headed toward the Pro-Life hall of fame!

Get off the couch, all you "pro-lifers". Get out there. Drive the lane!