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Life and Death in America: Asking 'Why?'
By Doug Patton
March 29, 2004

The first article I noticed on page one as I picked up my Sunday paper this week was about the ugly topic of child abuse. The headline read: "Cases Pile Up For Already Overworked Child Advocates." It told the sad tale of abused and neglected children in Omaha, Nebraska.

It also detailed the day-to-day heartache of twenty full-time investigators who see their workload grow by five new cases each week, and for every case that is investigated, there are many that are not. In fact, the article estimated that an additional 6,000 reports should have been investigated from 1999 through 2002, which probably would have turned up 1,600 additional incidents of abuse or neglect. The obvious question: Why?

Right next to this article was the story of notorious Nebraska abortionist Leroy Carhart, who has enriched himself over the years by committing legal infanticide at his clinic in Bellevue. In 2000, Carhart's attorneys challenged Nebraska's ban on partial-birth abortions before the United States Supreme Court. Carhart won that case, and the heinous practice of destroying fully formed babies, up to and including the moment of birth, remained legal in Nebraska.

Now, feeling his flow of blood money again threatened, Carhart has filed a similar challenge to the recently passed federal ban.

As I thought about the terrible irony of these two realities - child abuse and infanticide - I remembered one of the early excuses for legal abortion: to reduce the number of abused and neglected children. Unwanted children are the ones who are abused and neglected, the logic went. Therefore, eliminate unwanted children and society will eliminate abuse. Precisely the opposite has happened. Why?

As I opened the paper to finish reading these two articles, a third story caught my eye, and it only deepened the paradox of life and death in America.

"Aging Inmates Swell Prisons, Raising Costs of Health Care," the headline read. It told the story of Dennis Whitney. After having been convicted of two 1960 murders at the age of 17, and having later confessed to at least five more, Whitney was sentenced to die in Florida's electric chair. He sat on death row for twelve years. Then, in 1972, after coming within two days of execution, his sentence was commuted to life in prison.

Today, at age 61, having served 44 years in prison, Dennis Whitney has undergone two angioplasties at state expense to clear narrowed or blocked blood vessels. Doctors say he needs the procedure a third time. The article went on to inform us that an aging prison population combined with stiffer sentences equals increased medical costs. Thousands of dollars of taxpayer funded health care for convicted murderers. Why?

Why have we allowed our sense of justice and mercy to become so skewed? What has happened to the shared societal consensus that once governed our convictions on the issue of right and wrong? Why has it been discarded? How can we get it back? As we ponder life and death in America in the 21st Century, it becomes increasingly obvious that we must ask ourselves these questions.

It is a strange juxtaposition of values that permits us to peruse the newspaper and fail to be incensed by these three stories. And it is a defective legal system - at least in practice - that would mandate top-notch medical care for incarcerated murderers while refusing to see that the practice of partial birth abortion and an intolerable epidemic of child abuse are inconsistent with the concept of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

For all of us, it is time to ask "why?"

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Doug Patton is a freelance columnist who has served as a speechwriter and policy advisor for federal, state and local candidates, elected officials and public policy organizations. His weekly columns are published in newspapers across the country, and on selected Internet web sites, including www.GOPUSA.com, where he serves as the Nebraska Editor. He also writes for Talon News Service (www.TalonNews.com). Readers can e-mail him at dpatton@neonramp.com.

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Note -- The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, views, and/or philosophy of GOPUSA.