By What Moral Authority?

national sanctity of human life day 2009

A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America

All human life is a gift from our Creator that is sacred, unique, and worthy of protection.

On National Sanctity of Human Life Day, our country recognizes that each person, including every person waiting to be born, has a special place and purpose in this world. We also underscore our dedication to heeding this message of conscience by speaking up for the weak and voiceless among us.

The most basic duty of government is to protect the life of the innocent. My Administration has been committed to building a culture of life by vigorously promoting adoption and parental notification laws, opposing Federal funding for abortions overseas, encouraging teen abstinence, and funding crisis pregnancy programs.

In 2002, I was honored to sign into law the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, which extends legal protection to children who survive an abortion attempt. I signed legislation in 2003 to ban the cruel practice of partial-birth abortion, and that law represents our commitment to building a culture of life in America.

Also, I was proud to sign the Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2004, which allows authorities to charge a person who causes death or injury to a child in the womb with a separate offense in addition to any charges relating to the mother.

America is a caring Nation, and our values should guide us as we harness the gifts of science. In our zeal for new treatments and cures, we must never abandon our fundamental morals. We can achieve the great breakthroughs we all seek with reverence for the gift of life.

The sanctity of life is written in the hearts of all men and women.

On this day and throughout the year, we aspire to build a society in which every child is welcome in life and protected in law. We also encourage more of our fellow Americans to join our just and noble cause. History tells us that with a cause rooted in our deepest principles and appealing to the best instincts of our citizens, we will prevail.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim January 18, 2009, as National Sanctity of Human Life Day. I call upon all Americans to recognize this day with appropriate ceremonies and to underscore our commitment to respecting and protecting the life and dignity of every human being.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fifteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord two thousand nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-third. GEORGE W. BUSH

Source: White House News

Lovely, except that acts by our government to udermine the dignity of Human life through torture, through unlawful detainment and through agressive acts of war on sovereign lands have eroded the very authority this president claims in this symbolic act.

Notice this president- who has spent the last several weeks, like a prospecter looking for small nuggets of gold, singling out the smallest of achievements in his eight-year reign- did not mention anythimg about an actual reduction in the number of abortion (it didn't happen). Nor does he mention anything about the plight of children and poor women who are falling through the cracks of our health care system.

He mentions his abstinence based education programs but fails, even now, to admit their absolute failure to achieve their established goal.

Once again, this president, on behalf of the extreme right, is spoon-feeding us with tripe and failed rhetoric where policies have failed.

The message of the above declaration is stunning and it is a challenge to which our country could indeed respond. The problem is the absolute lack of credibility of the messenger. As such, it looks more foolish and arrogant.

Some have already said that this is a feable attempt for this president to try to remain relevant in his last days. That may be partly true. More likely, this is a planned conservative movement to try to come out of the failed policies of the past eight years with an issue they can call their own.

And it may work. Memories are short- look no further than the resurgent popularity of past presidents Nixon and Bush I. In 2 years time it is just this sort of message that a Sarah Palin or Mike Huckabee (and locally Michelle Buchanan ) could use to crystalize the abortion issue.

Simgle issue politics has worked in the past and in the end, as we bid farewell to to this failed administration, it may be all they have left.