Please Mitt, at least a mea culpa

By R.T. Neary

(Originally published Dec. 17, 2007)

Dear Mitt:

Many of us from Massachusetts will be headed down to Washington, D.C. this January to join over 100,000 others in the 35th Annual March For Life, memorializing some 48 million pre-born children whose beating hearts were legally stopped by the sanction of the Roe v. Wade decision. Mitt, will you be with us? They're betting that you won't.

You made one of the smoothest transitions from being pro-Roe to anti-Roe of anyone I've ever witnessed, far less involved even than Norma McCorvey, the Roe plaintiff. Miss Norma told me that she had, in a worldly sense, everything to lose and nothing to gain by changing her position. Can you say the same?

We're told that it was the studying of scientific data regarding embryonic stem cell research which led to your conversion to the Pro-Life position. This, after multiple years of publicity about the now-outlawed partial birth abortion procedure? Surely you knew about the courageous action of former Senator Bob Smith from our neighboring state of New Hampshire, who graphically depicted the gruesome procedure on the floor of the U. S. Senate. Where were you then?

On the campaign trail, you're asserting that you are "pro-life" because you are now in favor of overturning Roe v Wade. Are you asking us to believe that this posture is tantamount to being Pro-Life? Your current stance, which is the same as some of your competitors, is a states' rights position which doesn't interfere at all with the right to abort the life of a newly created human being. Why don't you make a firm pronouncement in favor of a Human Life Amendment, an uncompromising call for the protection of all innocent human life? This would be a genuine Pro-life position — and there's still time.

For decades, there has been a culture war raging nationally, and this state where you governed has been the site of major battles. During your tenure, over 100,000 of our future citizens were legally destroyed in this so-called commonwealth. Close to 10,000 couples of the same gender were issued "marriage" licenses, children were subjected to the vilest of sexual practices in tax-funded public schools, and one parent was jailed for voicing objections to it. Mitt, were you blind to all of this?

Are you still blind to the fact that to allow parents to donate embryos for scientific stem cell research is to sanction the willful destruction of an innocent human being? Yet, you're trying to make a fine point that you are opposed to "creating" embryos for scientific stem cell research. Sorry, it skirts the moral issue and doesn't wash.

Even the scientists involved in the research have not denied to us that an embryo has all its DNA in place. All that is needed for him or her to breath like you or I do is that two conditions be met: provide the proper environment and the necessary time.

With regard to your opposition on the presidential campaign trail to same-sex "marriage," as Governor of Massachusetts, you literally had your finger on the switch. And you pushed the full speed ahead, rather than locking in the stop lever. You, as a Harvard Law School graduate, knew that the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) had no authority under the Massachusetts constitution to pervert this millennia-old cornerstone of our society. And the SJC made it clear in the Goodridge decision that a majority of one ruled that the Legislature had that authority. The Legislature didn't have the votes to enact this overhaul of our family structure, so you stepped in and instituted gay marriage on your own, as governor. Now we have these thousands of couples who claim they are "married" to someone of the same gender.

Surprise — they are not.

Yes, and as a side note, even the Goodridges have split up since. And how long are we going to have to wait before a "spouse" contests the other's "divorce" petition, challenging the constitutionality of their "marriage." Mitt, where's your mea culpa? We're in a mess, and this cancer already is showing signs of metasticizing to other states.

We can't support your desire to ascend to the Presidency just because you oppose drivers licenses for illegal aliens. No more than if you come out against issuing gun permits to ex-felons who have served their time for bank robbery. Please give us some positions of substance — and depth.

And the religious issue is, in reality, another non-issue. We who are Reagan Democrats have voted for Christians, Jews, Mormons, and others in the past, and will continue to do so — but based on the principles they espouse and observation of how closely they demonstrate adherence to those principles.

I reflect on the many calls I made under that Golden Dome on Beacon Hill, attempting to get support from your office for Pro-Life bills and especially a bill which would require advance parental permission for subjecting children to gross perversion in Sex Education in public schools. Never once could we get beyond the lowest contact level. Nor could we get even a discussion about the need for curriculum transparency, and the need for signed parental approval before subjecting children's minds to psychologically damaging material.

Unfortunately, the status quo changed for the worse, because — although citizens in opposition packed overflow hearing rooms on these bills — neither you nor anyone from the Executive Office testified. Evidence of what was going on was shocking, but the left-wing media never brought the details to the public.

Mitt, you're familiar with the David Parker jailing in Lexington, where that first shot was heard round the world. David was incarcerated because he objected to his son being indoctrinated in kindergarten with homosexual behavior, which violated his and his wife's religious beliefs. Where were you, and where are you now, as David pursues his personal and family rights through the court system? Here is a principle at work which lies at the grassroots level, right on that famous Lexington Green. History is crying out for all of us to join forces against this violation of individual rights.

That picture of Willard Mitt Romney's family is impressive. It represents many of those values and traditions that we cherish. But a portrait is still one-dimensional. For you to be presidential timber, it's got to take on not only flesh and blood — but also passion. Your campaign to date has a deficit of the latter.

Some humility is certainly in order. This nation needs neither a CEO approach nor sound-bite scripts that are the hallmark of the other party. We need depth of commitment from a hands-on leader. That's what would stir up "values" voters, who are longing to find someone they can truly respect.

Massachusetts is the antithesis of where this nation should be headed. We are no longer sliding toward Gomorrah. We've replaced it. Mitt, let this nation know this with a mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

Let's never forget that Ronald Reagan won this state in his two successful runs for the Presidency. The bedrock principles he espoused — and stood by — still resonate with a large decisive voting bloc in this country.

© R.T. Neary